GRA Market Weekly (2026-08-02)

On 30 July, the CPC Politburo meeting sent a top-level policy signal, explicitly calling for stabilising the real estate market and stepping up counter-cyclical adjustment, and proposing to activate the effectiveness of existing policies and roll out incremental policies in a timely manner. Layered on the earlier six-ministry housing-market stabilisation package, expectations of a policy floor continue to firm up, drawing wide attention from real estate investment and asset management institutions.

This top-level tone-setting forms coordinated policy support: the meeting called for accelerating the deployment of fiscal and bond funds, and the market expects monetary policy tools such as interest-rate and reserve-requirement cuts to land around the end of Q3; localities nationwide continue to roll out housing provident fund optimisations and supporting measures for housing trade-in programmes, with the cumulative policy effect expected to emerge gradually in Q4, continuously improving the sector's liquidity environment.

Industry analysts note that with the top-level housing-market stabilisation plan in place, sentiment in core-city land markets and large-scale real estate transactions is expected to lift on one hand, while on the other developers' financing costs continue to fall and the revitalisation of existing assets accelerates, creating a favourable macro environment for advancing urban renewal projects and for follow-on offerings by real estate REITs.

Macro Policy

CPC Politburo meeting sets the tone with "stabilising the real estate market"

On 30 July, the CPC Politburo met to analyse the current economic situation and set out economic work for the second half of the year. The meeting set the priorities for H2, touching on the housing and stock markets, and proposed to "stabilise the real estate market" and "enhance the resilience of and confidence in the capital market", while stressing "fully leveraging the effectiveness of all existing policies and planning and rolling out practical and effective incremental policies in a timely manner", and explicitly calling for "stepping up counter-cyclical adjustment". The meeting stressed that "macro policy must exert force and improve effectiveness, accelerating the pace of fiscal spending and the use of bond funds".

The Politburo meeting's policy tone of "stabilising the real estate market", combined with the policy-floor expectations formed by the earlier six-ministry "package", is expected to provide floor support for Q4 land-market and core-city en-bloc transaction sentiment. In the first 26 days of July, localities issued policies 82 times, half of them housing provident fund policies; the cumulative policy effect is expected to emerge gradually in Q4. The meeting's call to "plan and roll out practical and effective incremental policies in a timely manner" signals a further step-up in growth-stabilisation policy in H2. Incremental monetary policy tools such as interest-rate and reserve-requirement cuts cannot be ruled out around the end of Q3. For real estate investment, further easing of the liquidity environment will lower financing costs, benefiting the revitalisation of existing assets and REIT follow-on offerings.

MOHURD issues the List of Replicable Experiences and Practices in Complete Community Development (First Batch)

On 28 July, MOHURD issued the List of Replicable Experiences and Practices in Complete Community Development (First Batch), covering 30 experiences, 9 categories of measures and 3 major mechanisms, spanning the full chain from work coordination and laws and policies to filling facility gaps, digital services, and investment, financing and operations. The list provides standardised operating guidance for urban renewal projects nationwide, helping to accelerate the approval and delivery of existing-community renovation projects - a positive for developers and asset managers involved in urban renewal.

Market Watch

Shanghai's sixth centralised land auction: Poly-China Resources consortium takes the Yangpu Badaitou plot for RMB 16.12 bn

Shanghai's sixth land auction batch offered three residential-inclusive plots in Yangpu, Xuhui and Fengxian, with a combined starting price of RMB 17.872 bn; all three sold, for total proceeds of RMB 23.514 bn. Among them, the Yangpu Badaitou commercial-residential plot (planned GFA 158,003 sqm) went to a Poly-China Resources consortium for RMB 16.12 bn after 219 rounds of bidding, at a 35.83% premium and an accommodation value of c. RMB 102,000/sqm - both the total price and the accommodation value set new records for land sales in Yangpu, making it the benchmark project of Shanghai's 2026 land market. The same day, Poly Developments together with Xuhui Chengtou won the Xuhui Guilin Park plot for RMB 7.06 bn, at an accommodation value of RMB 79,073/sqm and a 24.51% premium.

Three Beijing residential plots each sell after more than 100 bidding rounds

On 30 July, three residential plots were granted in Beijing, for a total of RMB 7.278 bn.

• Mentougou plot: Greentown won at RMB 1.4706 bn, accommodation value RMB 24,553/sqm, 16.71% premium, 160 bidding rounds
• Changping plot: C&D won at RMB 4.977 bn, accommodation value RMB 36,032/sqm, 10.6% premium, 103 bidding rounds
• Shunyi plot: Cangzhou Jiuxi (沧州玖熙) won at RMB 830.8 m, accommodation value RMB 19,148/sqm, 12.57% premium, 114 bidding rounds

Hua An Jin Jiang Commercial REIT oversubscribed on the first day of its public offering, closes early

On 30 July, Hua An Fund Management Co., Ltd. announced that, as cumulative valid subscriptions from public investors had exceeded the initial offering size cap, the public-investor tranche of the Hua An Jin Jiang Closed-End Commercial Real Estate Securities Investment Fund (fund short name: Hua An Jin Jiang Commercial REIT; exchange short name: Jin Jiang REIT; fund code: 508609) closed early with pro-rata allocation. The offering size is 700 m units (RMB 1.870 bn, estimated at RMB 2.672 per unit). Subscription enthusiasm for commercial real estate REITs continues, indicating growing market recognition of the rental cash flows of quality hotel assets. In the same week, ChinaAMC Poly Commercial REIT (RMB 1.796 bn) took effect, as the supply of commercial real estate REITs accelerates.

Project Watch

Ground broken on a new-build rental housing project on Guanshan Road, Yangpu, Shanghai

The project is Plot C2-13 in Wujiaochang Sub-district, Yangpu District, Shanghai, with total GFA of c. 15,000 sqm, planned as fully fitted-out rental apartments with supporting retail and underground parking. The operators/investors are the Yangpu District General Cooperative (杨浦区总社) and Nanfang Company (南方公司), among others. A key affordable rental housing project for Yangpu District, it aims to create a new type of open, shared, mixed-function rental community. The ground-breaking ceremony was held on 30 July.

Shanghai launches a pilot to buy resale homes for affordable rental housing; three districts have acquired 551 units

On 29 July, the Shanghai Municipal Housing Administration disclosed that in February this year Shanghai launched a pilot to purchase resale homes for use as affordable rental housing, first landing in Pudong, Xuhui and Jing'an, and in May expanding to all central districts including Huangpu, Changning, Hongkou, Putuo and Yangpu, with each district's affordable-housing SOE responsible for acquisition and operation. As of 25 July, the three pilot districts of Xuhui, Pudong and Jing'an had acquired a combined 551 resale homes, of which 16 households had completed swaps into newly purchased homes.

Talent apartment plot in Zhengyi, Bacheng, Kunshan listed, adding serviced apartment supply around Shanghai

On 29 July, a talent apartment plot in the Zhengyi area of Bacheng Town, Kunshan, Suzhou was listed. The plot has a grant area of 10,453 sqm on 40-year commercial land with a maximum plot ratio of 2.5; the auction formally opens at 10:00 am on 26 August with a starting price of RMB 34.87 m. The plan carries explicit hard requirements: a hotel, serviced apartments and supporting retail must be built above ground. Of these, the hotel's plot-ratio-counted area must be no less than 3,800 sqm and the serviced apartments no less than 11,500 sqm; the underground portion is mainly for parking and plant rooms, with a green ratio of no less than 10%. The overall Zhengyi talent apartment project covers a total site of c. 11,100 sqm with total GFA of c. 42,700 sqm. Unit design skews towards young people: besides small studio units, a portion of two-bedroom units will also be provided.

Corporate Watch

China Life Capital and Mapletree set up a RMB 1.5 bn industrial and logistics RMB core fund

On 28 July, Mapletree Investments (Singapore) formally announced that, together with China Life Capital, it has jointly launched the group's first industrial and logistics RMB core fund, with total assets of c. RMB 1.5 bn. Besides China Life Capital, MetLife and AIA also appear on the fund's LP roster. The fund has completed a first close of RMB 752 m and successfully injected three logistics park projects.

CapitaLand Investment sets up "CapitaLand Select", a RMB 3.15 bn inter-institutional REIT

On 24 July, the CICC-CapitaLand Commercial Income-Holding Real Estate Asset-Backed Special Plan (abbreviated "CapitaLand Select" (凯德优选)) initiated by CapitaLand Investment was formally established, with an issue size of RMB 3.15 bn - currently the largest foreign-sponsored inter-institutional REIT in the market. Following the listing of ChinaAMC CapitaLand Consumption REIT and the approval of ChinaAMC CapitaLand Commercial REIT, it further enriches CapitaLand Investment's private product line. The underlying asset of CapitaLand Select, CapitaLand Jingcui Plaza (凯德晶萃广场), is a flagship mixed-use project at Shanghai's Xintiandi with total lettable area of over 130,000 sqm. As several urban renewal residential projects in the vicinity come on stream, the area's population is expected to grow steadily over the next three years.

Central China Real Estate sells two major cultural-tourism projects for RMB 3 bn, with insurance capital taking over

On the evening of 23 July, Central China Real Estate released an announcement proposing to sell two well-known cultural-tourism projects in Zhengzhou - "Only Henan | Drama Fantasy City" (只有河南|戏剧幻城) and "Jianye Movie Town" (建业电影小镇) - for c. RMB 3 bn (Drama Fantasy City RMB 2.5 bn + Movie Town RMB 500 m). The buyer is Suzhou Xinchen Equity Investment Partnership (苏州信宸股权投资合伙企业), backed by insurance capital and industrial capital.

Overseas Watch

Tokyo resale home prices fall for the first time in 26 months, with the decline widening in the six central wards

The average asking price of resale condominiums (70 sqm) across Tokyo's 23 wards fell 0.8% MoM in June to JPY 127.41 m (c. RMB 5.27 m, at JPY 1 ≈ RMB 0.0414), the first decline in 26 months. The six central wards (Chiyoda, Chuo, Minato, Shinjuku, Bunkyo and Shibuya) fell 1.3% YoY, the second consecutive monthly decline and a widening one; the share of price-cut listings in the six central wards over the past three months reached 50.9%, the first time above half since the Lehman crisis. Tokyo's property market is showing structural divergence - in the six central wards, prices have exceeded what genuine end-users can bear (a marked gap between budgets of JPY 70-98 m and asking prices of JPY 185 m), and buying by investors and the affluent is slowing; the six southern/western wards and the northern/eastern wards continue to rise. Rising interest rates are eroding the appeal of leveraged investment and weakening expectations of short-term resale gains; high-priced housing in the central wards is entering a correction, while the outer wards remain resilient on end-user demand.