(Yicai) June 3 -- China’s real estate market extended its recovery through last month, defying the usual post-peak sales season slowdown, with transactions holding firm and new homes in first-tier cities selling out on opening day.

More than 13.6 million square meters of new housing units were sold across 50 key cities in May, a 2 percent increase from the previous month, maintaining the positive trend seen in March and April, according to data from China Real Estate Information. The figure for new homes fell 2 percent from a year earlier.

Sales at the top 100 property developers fell 15 percent to CNY1.23 trillion (USD181.6 billion) in the first five months of the year, an improvement from the 20 percent drop recorded for the first four months and the third straight month of narrowing declines, per data from the China Index Academy. May’s sales surged 18 percent to CNY328.8 billion (USD48.6 billion) from April.

“Unlike previous years, when the peak sales season was concentrated in March and April, new home sales in core cities remained vibrant in May, without a clear seasonal cooldown,” said Ding Zuyu, founder of CRIC.

First-tier cities were the main drivers of the recovery. New home sales in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen totaled 2.15 million sqm, up 11 percent from the prior month and 6 percent from a year ago, with year-on-year growth up from 1 percent in April, according to CRIC figures.

In the first five months, new home sales in first-tier cities fell 12 percent to 8.09 million sqm from the same period last year, braking from an 18 percent decline in the first four months, CRIC data also showed.

Two new luxury residential projects in Shenzhen sold all 118 available units on their first day on May 23. The same happened for all 212 apartments at a high-end residential project in Shanghai that hit the market on May 29.

The market in second-tier cities, however, remains under pressure. Some 7.6 million sqm of new homes were sold in second-tier cities in May, down 3 percent from April, according to CRIC data.

Since developers usually step up promotional campaigns approaching the half-year mark, industry insiders believe that this, coupled with the launch of new high-quality projects in core cities, will likely keep the recovery momentum going this month.

Nevertheless, divergence across different cities and individual projects will persist, as a full-scale improvement of the national market will take time. "The real estate sector is still in the recovery phase, with 2026 a critical year to confirm the industry has bottomed out," Ding noted.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione