The real estate sector is undergoing a period of profound adjustment and business model transformation. Light-asset agency development has evolved from a supplementary business for developers into a core track for achieving stable growth and navigating industry cycles. It serves not only as a critical lever for companies to build a second growth curve but also as a key measure of a developer's professional capabilities, long-term value, and industry standing.
For real estate enterprises, deepening their involvement in agency development is both a proactive choice aligned with the industry's shift towards "equal emphasis on development and services" and a core pathway to realizing the full lifecycle value of assets and monetizing brand value. By exporting full-chain professional management capabilities, accumulating experience in managing diverse project types, and implementing comprehensive risk control systems, agency developers can effectively break free from the cyclical constraints of traditional development models. This enables them to optimize profit structures, amplify brand value, and expand growth boundaries, building differentiated competitive advantages in urban renewal, public housing, and industrial upgrading, thereby solidifying a core foundation of light-asset operations for long-term, stable development.
The "2026 Real Estate Agency Management Excellence 20" research results have been formally released. This selection was based on a comprehensive evaluation across four core dimensions: operational scale, operational management capabilities, model innovation breakthroughs, and brand value accumulation. It thoroughly reviewed the development achievements of the agency sector in 2025, deeply screening for benchmark companies that have shown sustained commitment, outstanding performance, and breakthroughs in both brand influence and management value.
Ultimately, Greentown Management, CR Land Management, and Gemdale Management led the industry with their all-around comprehensive strength. CIFI Project Management and Blue Town Group also followed closely with their steady business performance, collectively driving the agency sector towards continuous advancement in high-quality development.
Among them, Greentown Management has established an industry-leading full-chain agency system across four dimensions: scale growth, professional capability, brand value, and nationwide presence. Leveraging leading scale performance against the trend, consistently high delivery standards, deepening local expertise, and a highly collaborative client ecosystem, it has maintained its leading position in the agency sector. During the industry's deep adjustment cycle in 2025, Greentown Management demonstrated strong resilience and leadership, with newly contracted area reaching 35.35 million square meters for the year, leading the industry in new business scale against the trend. Its market share remained above 20% for ten consecutive years, continuously consolidating its absolute leading position. The company delivered 14.51 million square meters for the year, achieving over 10 million square meters of deliveries for five consecutive years, while maintaining high industry standards for delivery quality and contract fulfillment. Simultaneously, the results of Greentown Management's nationwide local deepening became increasingly evident, with project presence covering 132 cities across China. The client repeat commission rate rose further to 26%, achieving a dual leap in brand recognition and long-term cooperation value.
CR Land Management adheres to a core service principle of "Fast, Good, Economical, and Standardized." Relying on its full-cycle closed-loop management capability spanning "pre-planning — planning & design — construction management," it has deeply engaged core government clients. In 2025, it secured 87 new projects, achieving growth in both business scale and industry reputation. The company has developed a unique full-chain service model for large-scale cultural and sports venues, covering "planning & design — engineering construction — event support," providing specialized services for the opening/closing ceremonies and venue transitions of the 15th National Games. In partnership with China Resources Culture & Sports, it won the consulting project for the Ningbo Olympic Sports Center, fully demonstrating the synergistic value of agency development and operation. The consulting project for Shenzhen Airport's T2 terminal area pioneered a new paradigm for agency services in non-residential sectors. Benchmark projects like Xianyang Xiliu Park and the Dongguan Public Fitness Center continue to strengthen its professional barriers. With the industry influence of major benchmark projects and a high barrier to professional service, CR Land Management has established a solid leading advantage in core urban sectors, with its brand influence and industry moat continuously widening and deepening.
Also in the industry's first tier, Gemdale Management achieved high-quality, steady growth in business scale in 2025, supported by its industry-leading full-chain agency operation capability and full-cycle high-quality service system. By the end of 2025, Gemdale Management's agency business had expanded to over 70 cities nationwide, managing more than 418 projects, with a cumulative contracted management area exceeding 53.62 million square meters. Leveraging its diversified agency capabilities covering all formats, Gemdale Management continues to deepen its focus on the core government agency sector. Its cumulative contracted management area for government projects surpassed 11.94 million square meters, with business formats comprehensively covering public housing, educational facilities, industrial offices, municipal venues, stock revitalization, and urban renewal. It has created numerous government agency benchmark projects with industry示范 significance, fulfilling the dual promise of empowering urban construction and enhancing asset value through robust professional strength.
While leading companies continue to solidify the industry's foundation, CIFI Project Management achieved dual breakthroughs in scale expansion and business structure optimization through precise strategic positioning and full-format, full-cycle service capabilities. The company manages a cumulative total of over 270 projects, with 79 new projects secured throughout the year, and new contracted scale remaining at the forefront of the industry. Amidst steady scale growth, CIFI Project Management continues to break through the boundaries of single-format development. Its business footprint comprehensively covers diverse areas such as residential, commercial, senior care, industrial parks, and the revitalization of AMC non-performing assets, while simultaneously strengthening core capabilities across multiple dimensions including brand, team, resources, and quality control, continuously building its professional moat.
Adhering to its original mission of "Building More Good Houses for More People," Blue Town Group started from initial resettlement housing agency work, continuously iterating its service models and business boundaries. It has now formed a full-format agency service system covering diverse fields including public housing, industrial parks, and characteristic towns. Blue Town has entered 27 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government, covering 145 prefecture-level cities, and has cumulatively developed 715 benchmark projects, including 73 town projects, 224 government agency projects, and 418 other projects. Through its practice of quality agency development focused on accessibility, it continuously contributes to the improvement of public welfare and high-quality urban development.
In 2026, China's real estate sector reached a clear turning point amid deep adjustment. As "focusing on stabilizing the real estate market" and "advancing the new model for real estate development" were written into the government work report, the underlying logic of industry development has fundamentally shifted from "scale expansion" to "quality empowerment."
It is evident that the land market has formally entered an "era of existing stock." Urban renewal and the revitalization of idle assets are no longer alternatives but the main track for developers to secure growth space. Quality has become paramount, with the construction of "good houses" transforming from a slogan into a hard indicator of product competitiveness. Safety, comfort, green standards, and intelligence not only define new residential value but also redraw the lines of market share. Furthermore, the entry of central and state-owned enterprises into the agency business, the deepening of specific sub-sectors, and the健全 of sustainable development systems under the ESG concept collectively outline the industry's transition from the old "three highs" model towards a new equilibrium.
The following is an excerpt from the "Agency Management Development: Multi-Format Breakthrough" chapter of the report.
Multi-Dimensional Demand Release and Local Regulations Drive Industry Standardization In 2025, national macro policies and local implementation rules worked in synergy to inject long-term growth momentum into the agency sector. At the central level, policy documents such as the "16th Five-Year Plan" recommendations, the Central Urban Work Conference, and the "Opinions on Promoting High-Quality Urban Development" clarified the core direction of the new real estate development model. This pushed agency services to extend from traditional residential development into areas like urban renewal, old housing renovation, public housing construction, and industrial park配套设施.
First, the optimization of the housing supply system continues to release demand for public housing agency work. The "16th Five-Year Plan" recommendations explicitly proposed "optimizing the supply of public housing," promoting the standardized development of its construction, allocation, and management. Agency enterprises, with their professional capabilities in planning and design, cost control, and schedule management, have become important participants in public housing construction.
Second, urban renewal has entered a refined stage, becoming a core source of incremental growth for agency services. The Central Urban Work Conference clearly indicated that China's urbanization has shifted from a period of rapid growth to stable development, with the urban development model transitioning from large-scale incremental expansion to improving quality and efficiency of existing stock. From the "Implementation of Urban Renewal Actions" in the "14th Five-Year Plan" to "Vigorously Implementing Urban Renewal" in the "16th Five-Year Plan," 297 prefecture-level cities and over 150 county-level cities have comprehensively initiated urban physical examinations, with urban village renovation and old residential district renewal becoming key tasks.
Third, full lifecycle management of buildings is activating demand for agency services in old housing renovation. The "16th Five-Year Plan" recommendations proposed "establishing a full lifecycle safety management system for buildings," shifting the policy focus from "incremental development" to "existing stock maintenance and operation." This has led to a surge in demand for full-process services including safety assessments, renovation design, and construction supervision for old housing.
At the local level, since 2025, provinces and cities including Hunan and Inner Mongolia have released management measures for the agency system for investment projects. In 2025, locations such as Langfang, Qingdao, Jinan, and Sanxiang Town in Zhongshan further refined policies, forming a complete system of "mandatory agency scope + incentive mechanisms + supervision and management" to drive the agency industry towards specialization and standardization.
First, defining the scope of agency work and investment thresholds to delineate market boundaries. For instance, Sanxiang Town in Zhongshan specified that the agency system covers four major categories of non-operational projects including education, science, culture, health, and sports, and municipal facilities, with projects exceeding a total investment of 1 million RMB requiring approval.
Second, refining fee rate standards and incentive mechanisms to balance cost and收益. Current agency fee rates are generally below 3%, significantly lower than the earlier 5%-6% level. Various regions are ensuring reasonable profits for agency firms through mechanisms like tiered fee calculation and cost-saving rewards, while forcing efficiency improvements. For example, Foshan categorized agency management fees into five tiers based on total project estimates, ranging from below 10 million RMB to over 2 billion RMB, with rates for ordinary projects between 0.4%-2% and complex projects between 1%-3%.
Third, improving the supervision and management system to standardize market order. Many localities prioritized supervision mechanisms,完善 the assessment and accountability systems for agency units. Sanxiang Town clarified the responsibilities of the construction unit, agency unit, and competent authorities, stipulating penalties for unauthorized changes to construction content or budget overruns, ranging from deductions from performance bonds and management fees to criminal liability.
Fourth, significant regional policy differences provide opportunities for differentiated competition. The variations in local policies offer agency enterprises opportunities for cross-regional expansion and deepening in specific segments. For example, Qingdao encourages "centralized construction" and "self-build," allowing agency firms to replace the self-build function of project units through a "full-process agency" model, leveraging their professional capabilities.
Scale Divergence Intensifies, Industry Adjusts Actively Under Fee Rate Pressure In 2025, the agency industry maintained overall growth, but influenced by a challenging macro environment and intensified market competition, it exhibited characteristics of "significant scale divergence,持续 fee rate pressure, and focus on core markets."
In terms of enterprise scale, newly contracted project area in 2025 showed significant divergence among agency firms. Leading companies, leveraging brand, resource, and professional advantages, led in scale but experienced slower growth. Mid-tier companies accelerated expansion, while smaller firms grew slowly or even contracted.
Behind this divergent landscape lie differences in corporate strategy and core capabilities: leading firms pursue nationwide,全业态 layouts, securing quality project resources through brand strength and full-process service capabilities; mid-tier firms actively expand cooperation networks, strengthening collaboration with local state-owned enterprises and AMC institutions to accelerate scale expansion; smaller firms often focus on localized exploration, with some relying on low fee rates to secure projects for survival, but facing quality risks and profit pressure.
Facing fee rate pressure, leading companies are adopting a "quality compensates for price" model to offset the impact of declining rates. For instance, Greentown Management, through refined cost control and full-cycle service capabilities, achieved a balance between fee rates and profit in projects like the Wuhan Qingshan project and Nanjing project, maintaining a gross margin of approximately 40% in the first half of 2025, demonstrating strong profit resilience.
Notably, low fee rate competition may trigger quality risks. Some new entrants, in a bid to capture market share, excessively reduce fees, potentially compromising later-stage project management and engineering quality. This not only harms client interests but also affects the industry's overall reputation. It is believed that reasonable profits are key to sustaining stable business operations and high-quality industry development. Agency firms should avoid恶性 price wars and instead achieve a balance between scale and profit by enhancing professional capabilities and expanding into high-value-added services.
Significant Profit Divergence, Firms Build Differentiated Competitiveness In 2025, the profitability of agency enterprises faced downward pressure, primarily due to持续下滑 fee rates and consequent declines in project revenue.
Confronted with industry competition and profit pressure, agency firms are actively exploring diversified paths to break through. By deepening strategic cooperation, expanding light-asset models, strengthening brand marketing, and advancing digital-intelligent transformation, they are building differentiated competitiveness to cope with industry pressures.
First, deepening strategic cooperation networks for complementary advantages. Greentown Management is engaging in multi-level cooperation with the CCCC system, where CCCC's strength lies in infrastructure construction, while real estate agency development is Greentown's forte, allowing them to协同 pursue projects in urban renewal and comprehensive area development.
Many agency firms are building cooperation networks through partner programs. Gemdale Management launched the "Stellar Plan," focusing on the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and other provincial capitals and strong prefecture-level cities. JINMAO Management released the "Engine Plan," recruiting partners nationwide. In 2025, CIFI Project Management's "Thousand Sails Plan" had cumulatively developed over 563 partners, recommending nearly 413 projects, effectively expanding business sources.
Second, accelerating light-asset model expansion to enhance profitability. Agency firms are actively expanding light-asset models, achieving rapid business growth and improved profitability by exporting management, brand, and technology.
Third, strengthening brand value marketing to提升 brand premium. As the industry shifts from "trading price for volume" to "establishing brand through value," agency firms are actively推进 brand marketing, translating professional capabilities into market recognition.
Fourth, advancing digital-intelligent transformation to提升 management efficiency. Some agency firms are optimizing management processes, reducing operational costs, and enhancing core competitiveness through digital-intelligent transformation.
Fifth, experimenting with diversified cooperation models to expand profit space. For some quality housing projects, certain agency firms are considering appropriate capital investment, adopting a small-equity agency model to share in project appreciation gains. Simultaneously, companies are actively exploring overseas markets. For instance, Beijing Urban Construction Group won the pipeline network upgrade project in Nairobi's Central Business District, Kenya, and Greenland Zhi Zao secured the marketing management service for the Future Coast project in Pattaya, Thailand. Such overseas布局 helps分散 domestic market risks and explores new profit avenues.
Multi-Format Synergistic Development, Full-Chain Service Capability Becomes Key By 2025, the agency industry had transitioned from单一 residential agency work towards multi-format synergistic development. Sub-sectors including residential (including public housing), commercial, industrial, and public facilities developed in parallel, with public facility agency work and industrial park agency work becoming new growth poles. The demand characteristics and capability requirements differ significantly across sub-sectors, necessitating that agency firms focus on their own strengths and strengthen full-chain service capabilities to seize market opportunities.
Residential agency work remains the core sector. In 2025, companies like Greentown Management, CR Land Management, Gemdale Management, Longfor Cifi, China Merchants Project Management, and CIFI Project Management secured numerous residential agency projects. Market demand exhibited characteristics of dual drivers: "public housing + improvement."
Competition in residential agency work has shifted from basic development management to comprehensive competition based on "product strength + resource integration." Firms need to meet the rigid demand for public housing and the quality demands of improvement-oriented housing through strategies combining product line standardization and customization, and deep collaboration with state-owned enterprise resources.
Commercial agency work primarily covers formats like hotels, office buildings, and shopping centers. In 2025, the commercial agency market was characterized by "high non-standard requirements and明显 differentiated demand." Agency firms need to strengthen "commercial + cultural tourism" cross-border integration capabilities and adopt light-asset models to address market challenges.
The ongoing advancement of industrial policies provides strong support for industrial agency work. National efforts to revitalize industries, particularly the development of industrial clusters, drive demand for supporting industrial facility construction, thereby promoting growth in industrial agency business. For example, China Metallurgical Group Real Estate won the agency project for the fluorite mine upgrade and dual-carbon fluorination industrial park in Ongniud Banner, Chifeng, with a total investment of 800 million RMB, responsible for the full process from preliminary management and planning design to development, construction, and final acceptance.
Urban village renovation has become another incremental market for industrial agency work. For instance, Gemdale's Shenzhen regional company won the project for the industrial resettlement factory buildings in the southern area urban village renovation of Huangjiang Town, Dongguan, with a total construction scale exceeding 110,000 square meters. Agency firms need to deeply integrate with regional industrial planning, maximizing value through contiguous development and industrial导入, shifting from单纯的 construction management to comprehensive services encompassing "industrial planning + park operation."
The tripartite collaborative model of "local platform + professional agency + vertical operation" has become an important path for public facility agency work. For example, the Zhangzhou Yuanshan Hospital agency project involves the更新 construction company under Xiamen's municipal SOE, C&D Group,承担 the agency职责, with C&D Health Group responsible for subsequent operations management. This model leverages the resource advantages of local SOEs while utilizing the technical capabilities of professional agency firms and the market experience of operators, achieving full lifecycle value enhancement for public projects from construction to operation.
This article is excerpted from "Agency Management Development: Multi-Format Breakthrough."
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