Shenzhen Tightens Home Presale Rules as Seven Chinese Cities Shift Toward Completed Housing

Developers must finish the roof structure before preselling

Shenzhen introduced housing sales rules on October 15, 2026, requiring residential buildings on newly advertised development land to reach structural completion before developers can apply to sell apartments in advance. The city has set a precise threshold: the concrete for the roof structure of each building offered for presale must have been poured.

Developers must also submit a quality acceptance record for the main structure, signed and stamped by the project owner, designer, construction contractor and construction supervisor. The requirement applies to commercial housing projects whose state land use rights transfer announcements were published after August 28, 2026.

The measures move more construction work ahead of the point when developers can collect money from buyers. Shenzhen is also giving priority to sales of completed homes, limiting reservation deposits generally to 3% of the purchase price and placing project funds under a designated bank arrangement.

Shenzhen's housing and construction bureau, planning and natural resources bureau, and the Shenzhen office of the National Financial Regulatory Administration jointly issued the implementation opinion. It took effect on October 15.

Hangzhou issued its own rules that day, bringing the number of major cities with implementation plans to seven: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Tianjin and Hangzhou. All four of China's first tier cities now have detailed arrangements for the reform.

For buyers, the practical change is straightforward. Developers must carry a project further through construction before offering apartments for presale, while completed home sales give purchasers more opportunity to inspect what they are buying. For developers, more money must remain committed to construction for longer before sales receipts become available.

What topping out means for a buyer

Shenzhen's roof concrete requirement gives the phrase structural topping out a measurable meaning. A developer seeking a presale permit must demonstrate that the main structural frame of the particular building has reached its roof, with the required quality acceptance paperwork completed.

A building at this stage still needs further work before residents can move in. Interior construction, utilities, lifts, shared facilities and completion procedures can follow structural completion. Buyers purchasing through presale therefore still face a waiting period, although construction must be further advanced when the sale begins.

Completed home sales follow a later milestone. Shenzhen requires the property's first real estate registration before a completed home can be sold. This is the initial entry of the completed property into the official real estate register.

New land projects will give priority to completed home sales. Where a land transfer announcement expressly requires that sales method, the developer must follow it. Presales remain an option for eligible projects, subject to the higher construction threshold and financial controls.

Which projects get time to adjust?

August 28 is the dividing date, but a project's position depends on its land and planning documents. Shenzhen is allowing older developments to continue under previous rules in specified circumstances, rather than changing every project at once.

Projects that had obtained a construction engineering planning permit on or before August 28 can continue under the previous presale policy. A planning permit establishes the approved development plan and is different from the construction permit used to authorize building work.

Developers that had acquired land but had not obtained the planning permit generally face the new requirements. Qualifying projects can, however, complete the required filing and continue preselling under the old conditions through the end of 2027.

Shenzhen has left separate arrangements for certain older redevelopment projects to further study. These include historical projects involving the redevelopment of old towns, factories and villages, commonly grouped in China under the term three old areas.

The main dates are:

• August 28, 2026: The dividing date for new and existing projects under the reform.
• September 18, 2026: The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development described a property market increasingly centered on existing housing stock at a media conference.
• October 15, 2026: Shenzhen's implementation opinion took effect, while Hangzhou also issued its rules.
• December 31, 2027: The transition deadline for qualifying Shenzhen projects with land acquired but no planning permit at the dividing date.
• December 31, 2028: The longer transition deadline available to qualifying historical projects in Hangzhou and Wuhan.

How the 3% deposit arrangement works

Shenzhen allows developers pursuing completed home sales to collect reservation deposits after obtaining a construction permit, subject to the required procedures and an assessment of delivery risk. The deposit is generally limited to 3% of the total purchase price.

A reservation deposit lets a buyer commit to a future purchase before the property reaches the completed sale stage. Under the new arrangements, deposits must enter regulated accounts, keeping the money within the project's supervised financial system.

Buyers can terminate their deposit contracts if developers fail to deliver homes on schedule. Developers must refund the deposits and bear the liabilities set out in the contracts. Delivery dates and contractual obligations therefore remain central to the agreement between buyer and developer.

Shenzhen's percentage matches Shanghai's 3%. Beijing sets a 1% limit, while Guangzhou, Wuhan, Tianjin and Hangzhou allow up to 5%. These figures describe reservation deposits, a different payment from a mortgage down payment.

Sun Hongmei, a senior analyst at the Shenzhen division of the China Index Academy, said Shenzhen's approach balances developers' sales arrangements with the protection of buyers' funds. Its deposit allowance sits between Beijing's tighter limit and the larger proportion permitted in Guangzhou.

One bank will oversee the project's money

Shenzhen is introducing a lead bank system under which all project funds enter a unified account arrangement and remain within a supervised payment process. The aim is to keep money associated with a housing development directed toward that development.

District housing authorities will provide administrative oversight, while the municipal housing provident fund center will handle practical supervision through dedicated regulated accounts. China's housing provident fund system normally manages employment based housing savings and related lending; in this arrangement, the center also performs a specific fund supervision role.

The wider reform links mortgage disbursement to the filing of construction completion records. Liu Shui, enterprise research director at the China Index Academy, identified this requirement, the higher presale threshold and priority for completed home sales as common elements across the seven cities.

For developers, the timing of usable cash changes as well as the timing of a sale. Construction must progress further before presale eligibility, project receipts remain supervised, and mortgage funds arrive at a later milestone. Construction finance and developers' own capital consequently have to support more of the building process.

Land payments offer relief, with a firm condition

Shenzhen is allowing developers to spread payments for newly transferred residential land. They must pay 50% within 30 days, with the balance generally due within one year. Special projects can receive an extension to two years.

Full payment remains a condition for the initial land registration and issuance of the first presale permit. A developer can spread the early cost of acquiring land, but must settle the land price before reaching that sales milestone.

Hangzhou allows at least 50% to be paid within 30 days and the remainder within two years without interest. Beijing also allows the balance to be paid over as long as two years. Shenzhen, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Tianjin generally use a one year period with the possibility of an additional year following approval.

Sun said Shenzhen's installment arrangement eases some initial financial pressure, while the connection between full payment and presale eligibility makes its framework more restrictive than Beijing's. Developers must plan land payments, construction spending and the expected date of sales together.

Why developers accelerated launches

Shenzhen developers increased their pace of obtaining presale permits around the reform's dividing date. The Shenzhen real estate information platform recorded 27 residential developments receiving permits from August 28 to October 10, compared with seven from July 1 to August 27.

The later period was shorter, yet its total was almost four times as large: 27 developments compared with seven. Developers were bringing more projects to the presale stage as the city prepared detailed rules for the transition.

The market entered this change with a relatively modest stock of new homes. Wu Rui, managing director for South China at Savills, put Shenzhen's new home inventory at just over 22,000 units at the end of June 2026, with an absorption period of 13.1 months.

An absorption period estimates how long that stock would take to sell at the sales pace used in the calculation. Wu said slower additions to supply under completed home sales could help balance supply and demand and support price stability in the short term.

Shenzhen Centaline's research center calculated that completed homes represented 41% of new home sales from January through September 2026, nearly twice the proportion in 2024. It forecast that the share could exceed half over the following one to two years. A shift to more than 50% would mean an increase of more than nine percentage points from the reported 41%.

Hangzhou shows how the same reform can work differently

Hangzhou and Shenzhen share the main direction of reform but differ in the steps needed to sell a completed property. Shenzhen requires first real estate registration. Hangzhou allows completed home sales filing after construction completion has been recorded and supporting facilities meet the required standards.

Hangzhou also allows developers to choose presale or completed home sales unless the land announcement specifically requires completed sales. Its longer transition for qualifying historical projects runs through the end of 2028, matching Wuhan's approach.

For fully fitted housing, Hangzhou permits separate completion filings for the unfinished building stage and the interior decoration stage. This separates two parts of the completion process that would otherwise be handled together.

Yan Yuejin, a property research analyst cited in assessments of the reform, estimated that the arrangement could shorten the relevant processing and turnover period by more than six months. The estimate concerns the handling of those projects, with the benefit depending on how the staged procedures operate.

Wuhan offers another form of flexibility. It allows qualifying bank guarantees to replace up to 30% of regulated funds while preserving the minimum 70% required to safeguard delivery. A bank guarantee is a bank's promise to pay if the developer fails to meet the covered obligation, allowing some cash to be released while retaining financial backing.

Who can finance the longer wait?

Liu Shui estimates that completed home sales could extend the time developers take to recover project funds by around one to two years compared with traditional presales. That lengthens the period during which construction spending must be supported by capital and borrowing.

Liu, the China Index Academy's enterprise research director, described the change in translated remarks:

The policy on reforming the commercial housing sales system introduced on August 28 has systematically restructured China's commercial housing sales system and will gradually change the previous development model that relied on presale receipts and pursued rapid turnover.

Ren He, an analyst at Guosen Securities, said completed home sales could reduce developers' internal rate of return, a measure that considers both the amount of investment profit and how quickly it arrives. Developers may consequently seek higher project profit margins when deciding how much to pay for land.

Qi Dong, an analyst at Kaiyuan Securities, said developers will need to judge housing prices and sales speeds further into the future. Yuan Wenbo, an analyst at China International Capital Corporation, said companies with stronger finances and better positions in core cities may gain a competitive advantage.

Li Yujia, chief researcher at the Guangdong Housing Policy Research Center, sees Shenzhen as relatively well placed to manage the transition. He cited annual new home sales of about 30,000 units, a large role for existing home transactions, relatively few projects in the development pipeline and already strict presale supervision.

Wu Rui expects the quality of individual developments to matter more over time. Homes in strong locations with attractive specifications may continue to draw buyers, while weaker projects face the prospect of sitting unsold after completion. Developers would then be carrying both the construction cost and the cost of waiting for a purchaser.

Key Points

• Shenzhen's rules took effect on October 15, 2026, as the reform expanded to seven major cities.
• Eligible new projects must complete roof structure concrete work and submit structural quality records before applying for presale permits.
• Completed home reservation deposits are generally limited to 3% and must enter regulated accounts.
• Qualifying older Shenzhen projects can use previous presale conditions through the end of 2027.
• Developers can pay for land in installments, but full payment is required before the first presale permit.
• Shenzhen recorded 27 residential developments obtaining presale permits from August 28 to October 10, compared with seven in the preceding period.
• Completed homes accounted for 41% of Shenzhen's new home sales in the first nine months of 2026.