During the National Day holiday, when new home sales offices are crowded with people, a quiet change is taking place in the second-hand housing market.
“The mentality of some second-hand house owners is changing, and they are increasingly unwilling to relent and blindly give up the price.” A real estate agent in Huangpu District, Guangzhou told reporters that before July and August, the mentality of second-hand house owners was consistent with the market: that is, second-hand house transactions were sluggish, and owners must show great sincerity if they want to facilitate the transaction. It is normal for the listing price and transaction price to differ by 100,000 yuan. Now this convergent balance has cracks.
Behind the change in the mentality of landlords is a package of new property market policies introduced in August and September as well as warmer transaction data. “Especially the implementation of the existing home sales system is the main factor affecting sellers’ expectations.” The agent said.
Policy combination reshapes second-hand house owners’ psychological expectations
Since August, a package of new property market policies has been introduced one after another. On August 28, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Natural Resources, and the State Administration of Financial Supervision jointly issued the “Notice on Improving the Commercial Housing Sales System”. The reform of the commercial housing sales system was officially implemented. The pre-sale threshold was raised to the cap of the main structure. The personal mortgage loan issuance node was postponed until completion and filing, and the sales of existing homes were further promoted.
At the same time, the “Opinions on Reforming and Improving Real Estate Credit Management to Promote the Acceleration of the Construction of a New Model of Real Estate Development” and “Opinions on Capital Market Support for the Construction of a New Model of Real Estate Development” were also launched to accelerate the construction of a credit system and capital market service system that matches the new model of real estate development.
The market generally believes that the existing home sales system puts forward higher requirements for the capital flow of real estate companies, which naturally reduces the pace of land acquisition and new construction. The future supply of new homes will subsequently decrease, and the “scarcity” of second-hand homes will increase. Second-hand homes in core cities, high-quality locations, and mature supporting facilities will directly benefit.
The above-mentioned intermediary said that since the existing home sales system, the mentality of second-hand home owners has changed. Take an internet celebrity property at a three-way intersection in Huangpu District, Guangzhou City as an example. In the past month, on the one hand, the transaction unit price of this property has increased. On the other hand, the owners are frequently changing the listing price to test the psychology of buyers. “Some owners even raised the listing price by hundreds of thousands,” he said.
Shell data also shows that from April to August this year, the average transaction price of this property hovered around 35,200 yuan to 35,300 yuan, and suddenly rose to around 35,700 yuan in September, accompanied by the expansion of the number of transactions.
In addition, the overhauled “Housing Provident Fund Management Regulations” came into effect on September 20, which broadened the scope of withdrawal and use, expanded the coverage of the system, and the guarantee effectiveness of the housing provident fund system is accelerating.
On September 29, the Ministry of Finance, the People’s Bank of China, and the State Administration of Financial Supervision jointly issued a notice clarifying that from October 1, 2026, the interest discount policy for residents’ home purchase loans will be implemented. The policy implementation period is tentatively scheduled for one year. After interest discounts, the actual interest rate on first-home commercial loans can be as low as 2.06%, even lower than the provident fund loan interest rate.
This is the first time that the central government has subsidized interest rates on commercial personal housing loans, and the policy signal is of strong significance. Moreover, according to policy regulations, the identification of first-time homes includes both new homes and second-hand homes.
Yan Yuejin, deputy director of Shanghai Yiju Real Estate Research Institute, believes that according to the conditions of the discount policy, it will mainly benefit second-hand houses in big cities, as well as new and second-hand houses in second- and third-tier cities. “For big cities, it will help revitalize small second-hand housing projects, and it will also help speed up the circulation of housing supply and drive the linkage of first- and second-hand housing.” He said.
The above three policies are superimposed to form a progressive combination from institutional supply to demand support.
After Silver Ten, who will give in first?
At the same time, the notion that the real estate market has entered an era of stock has also injected a “shot in the arm” into the second-hand housing market. On September 18, at the press conference on the theme of “Starting the 15th Five-Year Plan” held by the State Council Information Office, the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development introduced that currently, the real estate market has undergone two changes: First, the supply and demand relationship in the real estate market has undergone major changes; second, the real estate market has entered the stock era, and the proportion of second-hand housing transactions has increased from 27% in 2020 to 46% in 2025. In the first eight months of this year, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the proportion of second-hand housing transactions has reached 52%. If more than 50% exceeds 50%, it marks that real estate has entered the stock era.
This also means that second-hand housing is becoming the protagonist of the market, and future new property market policies will increasingly include second-hand housing in the scope of benefits. “The pricing logic of the real estate market has also changed: in the incremental era, new houses determine housing prices; in the stock era, the direction of housing prices is in the hands of thousands of second-hand housing owners.” said Li Yujia, chief researcher at the Guangdong Provincial Housing Policy Research Center.
However, it is worth noting that although second-hand home sellers are becoming more confident, buyers are not necessarily “buying in”, bidding expectations are still conservative, and the “scissors gap” between buyers and sellers’ expectations is getting wider and wider.
Data from the China Index Research Institute shows that in September 2026, second-hand housing transactions in key cities still maintained a certain level of activity, and transaction volume continued to grow year-on-year, but the month-on-month decline in prices expanded. The average price of second-hand housing in 100 cities was 12,452 yuan/square meter, a month-on-month decrease of 0.60%, and the decline expanded by 0.15 percentage points from the previous month.
Cao Jingjing, general manager of the Index Research Department of the China Index Research Institute, said that second-hand housing transactions may remain highly active, but the scale of listings is still relatively high, and prices may continue to adjust in the short term.
The above-mentioned intermediary also said that even in the “Golden Nine and Silver Ten” years, the number of house inspections has not changed significantly. Second-hand house buyers still adhere to the “picking up leaks” mentality and there is no phenomenon of chasing prices.
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