China's Housing Market Just Hit Its Lowest Level in 20 Years

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]China's real estate market just officially hit its lowest level in 20 years. According to fresh data from the Bank of International Settlements, China's real residential property price index just dropped to 86.79, which is the lowest reading they have recorded in two decades. From the peak in September 2021, the market is down about 22%. That's roughly a quarter of entire value of one of the largest housing markets in human history, just gone in few years. And that's devastating for almost all of Chinese citizens. You see, in the US, the average household keeps about 20 to 30% of its net worth in its house. But in China, it's 70 to 80%. Real estate isn't just where Chinese people live. It's their entire savings account, their retirement account, their kids inheritance, their wedding fund, all of it, and anything else you can think of.

[00:00:48]For decades, every Chinese family with extra money poured into property because the government basically guaranteed prices would only go up. Buying an apartment was equivalent of putting your money in the bank. But now, the bank is broken, flooded, and burned to the ground all at once. In other words, nobody really knows what the hell is going on anymore. New home prices have been falling for 33 straight months.

[00:01:11]This may sound like a good thing to people who want to buy a home, but it's not a good thing for people who have their entire net worth stuck in a house with a loan on it. Even in Beijing and Shanghai, the cities that were supposed to be untouchable. Prices are down around 10 to 12%. Sang Jang is down 5.5%. Guangho is down nearly 5%.

[00:01:30]Property investment has collapsed by 20% in 2025 alone. The entire real estate sector, which used to be 12% of China's GDP, is now down to about 6%. That's trillions of dollars in economic activity that just evaporated.