(Yicai) Jan. 28 -- The number of second-hand houses listed for sale in Shanghai and Beijing has continued to decline over the past months, with homeowners refusing to sell their properties at low prices, instead taking a wait-and-see approach or switching to renting.

Shanghai had about 336,800 pre-owned homes listed for sale as of yesterday, according to data released by Online Real Estate, a platform run by the Shanghai Real Estate Trading Center. The figure has fallen for four straight months, essentially returning to the level of February last year, with inventories gradually digested.

Beijing's second-hand home listings topped 125,300 units as of yesterday, down from a recent peak of 143,200 units last September, data from real estate agent Ke Holdings showed.

It has become a consensus among real estate agents that pre-owned home listings are on a downward trend, said Lu Wenxi, a senior analyst at Shanghai Centanet Real Estate Consulting. The decline is driven by quicker sales leading to continuous inventory consumption and by homeowners being reluctant to sell at low prices, with some temporarily delisting to wait and see, while others switch to renting, he pointed out.

"New listings of second-hand homes for sale in some cities are plummeting," Ding Zuyu, co-president of China Real Estate Information and chairman of Pury Smart Technology, said during a recent real estate market conference. Such listings saw a notable drop in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou last year, a sign that the adjustment of relevant prices has entered the bottom range, he added.

Pre-owned home prices tumbled last year, which kept sales at a high level, Ding pointed out. The full-year floor area of such houses sold in 30 major Chinese cities reached a record high of 214 million square meters.

"Prices are unlikely to drop sharply again in the near future," Ding noted, adding that the magnitude of the current round of second-hand home price adjustments in China has significantly exceeded the international average.

The overall home renovation business was relatively slow from 2023 to last year, but orders rebounded noticeably since the end of 2025, Xu, a veteran construction foreman in Shanghai with more than 20 years of experience in the sector, told Yicai, adding that work will keep him busy right up until the Chinese New Year holiday next month.

Many recent projects are from homeowners who originally planned to sell their homes but were repeatedly pressured to cut prices during the listing process, Xu pointed out. They ultimately decided to renovate their properties and rent them out instead, securing a relatively stable income, according to Xu.

Sales of pre-owned homes in Shanghai reached 254,000 units last year, a four-year high, according to data from real estate information service platform Anjuke.

The number of second-hand homes for sale on Shanghai Lianjia Real Estate has dropped for nine consecutive months, with the inventory down about 20 percent from a year earlier, the company said. As the pressure of inventory destocking eases, the supply and demand relationship in the market is gradually balancing.

Looking ahead, a growing number of homeowners are moving away from the cut-throat competition of "selling at rock-bottom prices" and no longer simply sacrificing prices for sales, returning second-hand home prices to a more rational level.

Editor: Martin Kadiev