Research from the China Index Academy indicates that the concentrated release of rental demand from graduating students in June led to a slight month-on-month increase in average residential rents across 50 major Chinese cities.
According to the Academy's 50-city residential leasing price index, the average rent nationwide reached 33.97 yuan per square meter per month. This represents a marginal increase of 0.08% compared to May, which had seen a 0.11% decline. On a year-on-year basis, rents were down 2.82%, though the rate of decline narrowed by 0.35 percentage points from the previous month.
Key Market Metrics
In the rental apartment sector, the top 30 centralized long-term rental apartment operators had a cumulative 1.448 million units in operation as of June 2026. Notably, local state-owned enterprises maintained steady growth in their operational scale, increasing their share among the top 30 to 29%. The "Anju Leyu" platform saw significant expansion this month, primarily due to the integration of the "Yujian Anju" business.
In terms of managed units, the top 30 firms managed a total of 1.994 million units. Wuhan Anju Group entered the rankings for the first time this month.
Rental Performance by City
In June, 16 cities saw month-on-month rent increases, five more than in May. Shanghai recorded the largest gain at 0.95%. Cities like Fuzhou, Suzhou, and Beijing saw increases between 0.3% and 0.5%. Six cities, including Urumqi and Shenzhen, experienced more modest growth of 0.1% to 0.3%. Another six cities, such as Wuxi and Hangzhou, had increases below 0.1%.
Conversely, 33 cities recorded month-on-month rent declines, six fewer than in May. Wenzhou saw the sharpest drop at 0.84%. Eight cities, including Changsha and Shaoxing, declined between 0.3% and 0.5%, while 16 cities, including Hefei and Lanzhou, fell 0.1% to 0.3%. Eight cities, including Jinan and Foshan, had declines of less than 0.1%.
Market Recovery Trends
The concentrated rental demand from the graduation season in June boosted market activity in key cities and helped restore landlords' pricing expectations. After two consecutive months of minor adjustments, the average rent across the 50 cities turned positive with a 0.08% increase. Following years of price adjustments, the rental market in major cities is showing signs of a firmer foundation and greater resilience.
The recovery signal is most pronounced in first-tier cities. In June, the average rent for ordinary residences in these cities continued to rebound, with the month-on-month growth rate expanding by 0.22 percentage points to 0.38%. While average rents in second-tier and third- and fourth-tier representative cities still adjusted downward in June, the pace of decline narrowed compared to May.
For the first half of 2026, average rents in first-tier cities registered a cumulative increase of 0.60%, ending a two-year period of adjustment. In contrast, average rents in second-tier and third- and fourth-tier cities fell by 1.20% and 0.79%, respectively, though the year-on-year rate of decline narrowed by over 0.6 percentage points in both cases.
July represents a critical window for the release of graduation-related rental demand. The large-scale entry of new graduates into the market is expected to be a core driver supporting rents in key cities, potentially strengthening the recovery trend. Cities with strong industrial clusters and population吸引力, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Tianjin, and Hangzhou, are poised to absorb substantial demand from new graduates seeking housing, which may support a continuation of the gentle upward trend in rents.
Advancements in Real Estate Investment Trusts
The first half of the year saw key progress in the securitization of market-oriented long-term rental apartment assets. In the public REITs space, the Guotai Haitong China Construction Rental Housing REIT has received feedback from the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Its underlying assets consist purely of market-operated long-term rental apartments, and its successful launch would mark China's first public REIT of this type.
Simultaneously, inter-institutional REITs are accelerating their market entry. In June, the CICC-Bolin Long-term Apartment Inter-institutional REIT was successfully issued, becoming the nation's first market-oriented long-term apartment REIT of its kind and opening a new exit path for purely market-driven projects.
Furthermore, innovative quasi-REIT products have emerged. The Guotai Haitong-Pukai Group Huizhi Affordable Rental Housing Quasi-REIT, issued on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in June with a scale of 3.65 billion yuan, is the country's first green affordable rental housing quasi-REIT and the largest such project in Shanghai to date.
As exit channels for rental housing assets continue to broaden, the industry is gradually forming a full-lifecycle securitization system encompassing "Pre-REITs, Quasi-REITs, Inter-institutional REITs, and Public REITs." This multi-layered system can accommodate long-term rental projects of varying asset scales and return profiles, meeting the diverse allocation needs of institutional investors.
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