Shanghai's second-hand home transactions in a single month have returned to 30,000 units for the first time in 5 years! Several new housing projects plan to gradually reduce discounts.

After 5 years, Shanghai’s secondhand home transactions returning to the 30,000-per-month threshold in a single month, with the “golden March” real estate market rally strongly materializing.

Secondhand home transactions in a single month break 30,000 units, with prices up slightly month over month

According to data from Shanghai’s property transaction official website “Online Real Estate,” in March, Shanghai’s secondhand homes (including commercial properties) accumulated 31,215 online signings, setting an all-time high in nearly five years since March 2021.

Li Gen, head of the Shanghai Lianjia Research Institute, said that the “early spring” quality of Shanghai’s secondhand home market in March was excellent, and the transaction data proved the market confidence had returned strongly. The city’s secondhand home transaction volume not only increased 6% year over year compared with March last year, but also rose significantly by 37% compared with this year’s January.

In terms of the transaction cadence, after Shanghai’s new “Seven Articles” were rolled out, the secondhand home market in March showed a week-by-week upward trend. From March 2 to March 8, Shanghai’s weekly online signings for secondhand homes were 5,709 units; after the Spring Festival holiday break, the market gradually returned to normal. From March 9 to March 15, single-week transactions jumped directly to 7,233 units, and the market rebound speed accelerated noticeably. Only a week later, from March 16 to March 22, weekly transaction volume hit a new high again, with 7,488 online signings. From March 23 to March 29, weekly transactions further climbed to 7,732 units, achieving growth for four consecutive weeks.

Daily transactions also performed exceptionally well. In March, there were 13 days in which the daily online signing volume for secondhand homes exceeded 1,000 units. Of these, seven days saw daily transactions exceed 1,300 units, and on March 28 alone, daily transactions reached 1,585 units, the highest level in nearly five years. According to institutional monitoring, this high-density volume at the high end is appearing for the first time since 2021.

Zhang Bo, president of the 58 Anjuke Research Institute, said that in March, Shanghai’s secondhand home transactions surpassed 30,000 units, and on March 28, daily transactions of 1,585 units set a record high, becoming a key benchmark for the rebound in the current real estate market. According to monitoring by the 58 Anjuke Research Institute, within 30 days after the “Seven Articles” in Shanghai were implemented, Shanghai’s average daily secondhand home transactions were 961 units, up 22.9% versus after the 2024 policy (the previous round of policy). The intensity of the policy “pulse” has increased significantly, and the heat’s persistence is also far beyond before, with weekly transactions consistently staying at a high level.

On the price front, there are also positive signals that the market is stabilizing and rebounding. Data from the China Index Research Institute shows that in March, the average price of secondhand residential homes was 55,075 yuan per square meter, up 0.08% month over month, ending a decline lasting 33 months. In addition, data from Lianjia in Shanghai shows that as a leading indicator, the number of viewings grew 28% compared with January, providing strong support for subsequent transactions.

Zhang Xiang, an analyst at the China Index Research Institute in Shanghai, believes that behind this rebound in Shanghai’s real estate market is the result of a dual drive from policy and supply-demand. On February 25, Shanghai rolled out the “Seven Articles” to precisely release homebuyer demand. Combined with the pilot programs in early February for the acquisition of secondhand homes in three districts—Pudong, Xuhui, and Jing’an—this provided clear exit channels and price anchors for “old and run-down” assets, effectively stabilizing market expectations.

The continued optimization of the market’s supply-demand structure has also laid the foundation for the rally. Monitoring data from the China Index Research Institute shows that Shanghai’s secondhand homes entered a destocking channel starting August 2025; by February 2026, when compared with the earlier period’s highest inventory peak, the listing stock had already decreased by 25.7%, and the supply-demand relationship continues to improve.

From the demand structure, demand-driven homes remain the core support of the market. Data from Shanghai Zhongyuan Real Estate shows that entry-level listings under a total price of 3 million yuan are highly sought after, and in March their share of transactions has gradually risen to over 70%.

Yan Yuejin, deputy dean of the Shanghai E-House Real Estate Research Institute, said that the transaction volume of 30,000 units for Shanghai’s secondhand homes is, overall, at a historically relatively high level. Combining the transaction volumes from the end of last year and this year’s first quarter, the market has basically stabilized, and this has also accumulated substantial potential demand for subsequent home swaps. If the transaction data in the second quarter can continue to maintain a high level—staying around 25,000 units per month—this will further reflect the market’s active trading posture.

Multiple new home projects plan to gradually reduce discounts starting in April

The heated secondhand home market is also gradually feeding into the new home market. Data from Shanghai Zhongyuan Real Estate shows that in March, the contracted floor area for Shanghai’s newly built commodity housing reached 563,000 square meters, up 251.6% month over month, an unprecedented rebound magnitude.

In terms of regional performance, driven by the concentrated launching of projects in Lingang, Pudong’s transaction release was particularly significant, with contracted area of 229,600 square meters, nearly accounting for half of the city’s total. In addition, demand-driven and first-time improvement-focused areas such as Baoshan and Jiading each saw contracted areas exceeding 50,000 square meters, becoming the core force supporting the explosion in new home transactions.

Lu Wenxi, a market analyst at Zhongyuan Real Estate, said that although new home transactions in March did not exceed the same period last year, front-end indicators such as visits and inquiries remained excellent, and market heat has stayed at a high level. He pointed out that slower supply pacing and insufficient single-batch volume are the main factors currently constraining further breakthroughs in transactions, while the new “Seven Articles” have a clear boosting effect on demand-driven and first-time improvement groups.

Judging by market performance, under the boost of the new policy, customer traffic and transactions for multiple new home projects in Shanghai have improved markedly. Taking HuaFa Haishang Du Hui in Dongjing, Songjiang as an example: since March, the project’s total visits reached 2,400 groups, with 76 units sold, and the transaction amount was about 350 million yuan. Another example is Poly Donghui Xuyue in Zhanzhuang, Minhang, Shanghai. In the first month after the new policy was implemented, the project received over 2,280 groups of visits, sold 101 units, with a conversion rate of 20%, becoming Shanghai’s first “100-unit” listing in the first month after the new policy.

Meanwhile, improvement-oriented projects have also performed well. As learned, the Jiande Haichen project in Yangpu’s Xinjiang Bay received over 1,500 groups of visits in March, sold 39 units, ranking first in Yangpu District for both March and the first quarter’s transactions. It is understood that the project has already launched a Haipai duplex product with a building area of about 230 square meters, and some other listings around 105 square meters are also selling hot.

Worth noting is that as the market rebounds, signals that new home market incentives are tightening and prices are stabilizing have begun to show. Among them, Poly Donghui Xuyue had previously been officially announced to raise the transaction prices of its villa listings across the board by 0.5% starting March 9; starting March 23, discounts will be further tightened. It is also reported that projects such as Jinhai Yunsu, HuaFa Haishang Du Hui, and Yi Jiang Zhen Di plan to gradually reduce discounts in April.

In Zhang Xiang’s view, an analyst at the Shanghai branch of the China Index Research Institute, the structural divergence characteristics in Shanghai’s real estate market remain clearly visible. Some high-quality new home products enjoy high recognition and fast destocking; however, parts of the far-suburb areas still face certain destocking pressure.

In addition, sales data from leading real estate developers monitored by the China Index Research Institute show that in the first quarter, Shanghai’s TOP30 developers combined achieved sales revenue of 76.91 billion yuan, with a sales area of 1.101 million square meters. Among them, China Resources Land led the sales revenue ranking with 11.57 billion yuan, followed closely by China Merchants Shekou and Poly Development.

Lu Wenxi said that the booming transaction volume in Shanghai’s secondhand home market in March has cultivated a large number of potential new home buyers. Secondhand home sellers will most likely enter the market to purchase new homes afterward, providing strong support for April transactions. With the ongoing supply being continuously delivered into April, market transactions are expected to break through further, and the heat will inevitably surpass that of March.

Cheng Yu, executive vice president of the Shanghai enterprise of the China Index Research Institute, said that judging from the market performance in March, policy has already initially activated demand; secondhand home transactions rebounded first, and new home transactions rose significantly. Looking ahead, if current market sentiment can be sustained, Shanghai is expected to maintain high levels of activity during the “early spring” market rally. However, what needs to be watched is that market stabilization will still be a gradual process, and its persistence depends on a substantive repair of residents’ income expectations and house price expectations.

(Source: The Paper)