(Yicai) Jan. 26 -- The market for bulk sales of properties in Shanghai underwent significant structural adjustments amid an overall price drop last year, with both the type of transacted assets and the composition of buyers changing. This trend is expected to continue into this year.

Against the backdrop of continued easing of domestic fiscal and monetary policies, small- and medium-sized real estate assets under CNY300 million (42 million) will remain the mainstream targets for bulk transactions this year, mainly because of their clear property rights and flexible decision-making, Lu Qiang, executive director of capital markets for East China at Cushman & Wakefield, told Yicai.

Properties in core areas of first-tier cities, such as Shanghai, will continue to attract capital inflows, with the investment logic shifting from purely pursuing financial returns to capitalization, asset management, and resource-based deep operation and value reshaping, he added.

As the pilot scope of real estate investment trusts keeps expanding and urban renewal policies continue to be implemented, investment exit channels are becoming increasingly clear, and the bulk-sale property market is expected to usher in more high-quality opportunities, said Sun Ling, head of investment and capital markets for East China at Jones Lang LaSalle.

Seventy-five bulk sales of real estate assets were completed last year, for a total value of CNY42.4 billion (USD5.9 billion), according to data from Cushman & Wakefield. The number of small-value transactions below CNY300 million surged to 38 in the period, accounting for over half of the total deals.

Statistics from JJL also confirmed this trend. Eighty-nine bulk property sales for a total of CNY48.7 billion were completed in 2025, down about 15 percent from 2024, with single transactions below CNY500 million accounting for 63 percent of the total, per data from the global real estate services giant.

Compared with past mainstream transactions of CNY1 billion (USD10 million) or even CNY10 billion, buyers now prefer projects of moderate scale, controllable risks, and shorter decision-making cycles, industry insiders told Yicai. These new requirements have made small- and medium-sized transactions the most common.

Moreover, the buyer base is no longer dominated by traditional institutional investors and foreign capital, as the proportion of deals by non-institutional and corporate entities is on the rise, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

“In the process of looking for office investment targets in Shanghai’s Lujiazui and Yangpu Riverside areas, we encountered representatives of private firms, mainly small- and medium-sized ones from other provinces, also planning to buy office buildings,” an investment staffer at a state-owned enterprise from northern China told Yicai. “They are all attracted by the price correction.”

For example, Fangda Carbon New Materials Technology, which is based in China’s northwestern Lanzhou, announced on Jan. 12 that it bought an office building in downtown Shanghai at a judicial auction for CNY456 million (USD63.8 million) to meet its business development needs in the Chinese eastern city.

Most of the bulk purchases of properties in Shanghai are made by domestic buyers now. Data from Cushman & Wakefield showed that foreign buyers completed only three bulk property acquisitions in Shanghai last year, with the transaction volume accounting for just 3 percent of the total.

Among domestic buyers, the proportion of bulk assets acquired for self-use rose to about 26 percent, as they either bought office spaces for their own operation needs or apartment projects to meet employees’ living needs, Yicai found.

Foreign enterprises completed 15 bulk purchases of real estate assets last year, for a total of around CNY12.9 billion (USD1.8 billion), accounting for roughly one-third of the market’s total transaction value, per data from Cushman & Wakefield.

“This shows that during the phased exit of some foreign capital, a batch of high-quality and low-priced assets have been released, providing domestic investors with opportunities,” Lu said.

However, Lu believes that foreign capital buying fewer and selling more bulk properties is more of a structural adjustment. “Some foreign institutions are actively preparing Chinese yuan funds and shifting their strategic focus to localization and long-termism, so foreign capital still has the potential to return in the future, thereby injecting new vitality into the market,” he explained.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione