China to Prioritize Completed-Home Sales Over Pre-Sales in Property Market

Shifting China's new-home market toward completed-unit sales is a structural change, not a cyclical tweak: it moves developers from buyer-funded construction to balance-sheet-funded construction, which favors operators with access to credit and pressures those dependent on pre-sale cash flow. The coordinated land, financial and tax support signals the state intends to absorb part of that transition cost, while tighter escrow oversight raises the compliance burden on pre-sale projects already underway. Whether completed-home sales keep gaining share, and whether the support measures are enough to offset developers' funding gap, is the open question.