New home sales in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei province, has reached 21,914 units this month, by December 26, exceeding 20,000 units for the first time in 2024, according to data from the Wuhan Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau.
For comparison, the city’s new home transactions in August and September was between 4,000 and 5,000 units per month.
Wuhan’s new home transactions have surged since October, reaching 10,919 units that month, exceeding 10,000 units mark for the first time this year and surging 53.6% month-over-month, and reaching 16,767 units in November, also surging by 53.6% on month. In December, the weekly new home transactions in December 16 – 22 reached 8,448 units.
Before this surge in the last quarter of 2024, Wuhan’s housing market had experienced over two years of downturn. As a major city in central China, Wuhan ranked top in terms of new home transactions from 2014 to 2017, with annual sales reaching 250,000 units in 2015, according to data from the Wuhan Real Estate Economy and Leasing Association, Fang.com, and Zhongji Research Institute.
In 2018, Wuhan’s market eased, but the city still ranked second nationally in new home sales that year. In 2019, according to Zhongji Research, Wuhan’s new home sales exceeded 200,000 units again, winning both the transaction volume and area championships. Wuhan’s new home sales remained above 200,000 units in 2020 and 2021, ranking among the top three cities in China.
However, starting 2022, the city’s housing market experienced a downturn due to the sector-wide adjustments and the pandemic. In 2022, Wuhan’s new home transactions totaled 116,300 units, and around 110,000 units in 2023.
The rebound in the fourth quarter of 2024 came after the authority introduced a series of stimulus measures in late September, which boosted buyer confidence and demand and as the local government has been acquiring unsold housing inventory, according to industry insiders.
Public records show that on July 10, 2024, Wuhan Anju Housing Guarantee Co., Ltd. and Wuhan Anjia Housing Guarantee Co., Ltd. were established with a registered capital of 500 million yuan each, fully controlled by Wuhan’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. The purpose of the two companies is to acquire and manage housing resources.
In August, Wuhan launched a program to purchase unsold homes to convert them into affordable housing, with the first acquisition project completed on August 17.
The land market has also heated up. On December 26, Wuhan held its latest land auction, with 30 plots sold for a total of 21.1 billion yuan, including 22 residential plots.Of these plots, five were sold above the reserve price, breaking the previous trend of only reserve-price sales.
In addition, after 16 months of continuous declines, new home prices in Wuhan began to rise in November, with a 0.4% month-over-month increase, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
With the market stabilizing, an increase in high-quality land supply, and other factors, developers are becoming more active in investing in Wuhan, and the city’s land market has shown a “tail effect,” with December’s transaction value reaching 41.8 billion yuan, exceeding the total of the previous 11 months, said Li Guozheng, an analyst at China Index Academy.