Revenue from residential real estate sold in China 1998-2021
many local governments highly dependent on land transfer fees to cover their increasing public expenditure. With demands for residential housing potentially falling, the sector is posing a significant risk to the long-term healthy development of the Chinese economy.
Since the 1998 housing reform, the Chinese real estate market went through more than two decades of prosperity. The overall sales revenue of commercial residential housing skyrocketed from 251.33 billion yuan in 1998 to over 2 trillion yuan in 2008, and more than 16 trillion yuan in 2021. The country's economy now heavily relies on the real estate sector, with