Chinese real estate investment fell further in January-May 2026, new construction decreased by 22.6%

In the period from January to May of this year, the total volume of real estate investment in China amounted to 3.0356 trillion yuan ($0.45 trillion), which is 16.2% less than year-on-year, which is 2.6 percentage points faster than the decline recorded in the period from January to April, as announced by the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBS).

During the specified period, the total area of new commercial real estate sold in China amounted to 313.2 million m2, which is 10.8% less than last year, which is 0.6 percentage points faster than the decrease recorded in the first four months.

In the first five months, the total area covered by construction activity in China decreased by 12.3 percent year-on-year, 0.2 percentage points faster than in the first four months.

The new area covered by construction activity in China, which is directly related to steel consumption in this segment, decreased by 22.6 percent year-on-year, faster than the 22.0 percent year-on-year decline seen in the first four months of the year. This signals a worsening of the situation in May, when the real estate market as a steel industry is still deteriorating.

According to the China Institute of Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research, the construction industry's share of China's total steel consumption fell to 49 percent in 2025, down by as much as nine percentage points from a 58 percent share in 2020. The rate of decline in steel use