China Fixed Asset Investment Down 5.7% in H1 2026 as Real Estate Slump Persists

In the first half of 2026, China’s national fixed asset investment (excluding rural households) reached 22.64 trillion yuan, marking a 5.7% year-on-year decline. The contraction was primarily driven by an 18.0% drop in real estate development investment and an 8.5% decrease in private sector investment. However, select high-value and infrastructure sectors expanded, with investment in intellectual property products rising 9.4% and information transmission infrastructure surging 25.6%.

Fixed asset and real estate investment metrics are vital indicators for tracking China's macroeconomic momentum, internal demand recovery, and risk mitigation across key industrial sectors.

China’s national fixed asset investment (excluding rural households) totaled 22,637.0 billion yuan in the first six months of 2026, representing a 5.7% year-on-year decline on a comparable basis, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Month-on-month figures for June indicated a 0.37% decrease in overall investment. By sector, primary industry investment increased by 0.9% year-on-year to 460.0 billion yuan. Secondary industry investment fell 1.1% to 8,312.0 billion yuan, while tertiary industry investment experienced an 8.4% drop to 13,864.9 billion yuan. Within industrial sectors, mining investment grew 5.9%, whereas manufacturing declined 1.2%, and the production and supply of electricity, heat, gas, and water decreased by 2.7%. Despite the overarching downward trend, specific high-tech and specialized categories posted positive growth. Investment in intellectual property products rose 9.4% year-on-year. Infrastructure investment overall fell by 2.4%, but sub-sectors saw substantial gains: information transmission investment jumped 25.6%, water transport investment grew 19.8%, and air transport investment expanded by 11.0%. Ownership patterns showed broad-based headwinds across commercial entities. State-holding investment declined 2.3% year-on-year, while private fixed asset investment dropped 8.5%. Investment by foreign-funded enterprises fell 4.7%, and investment from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan enterprises decreased 7.9%. Regionally, investment contracted across all geographic zones, with the Eastern region down 7.5%, Central down 4.9%, Western down 8.0%, and the Northeast region down 22.9%. The real estate sector remained a major drag on economic activity. Real estate development investment fell 18.0% year-on-year in H1 2026 to 3,807.4 billion yuan, with residential investment falling 17.8% to 2,930.0 billion yuan. Housing construction area contracted 12.5% to 5,540.49 million square meters, while new construction starts plummeted 23.4% to 232.39 million square meters. Completed property area fell 23.7% to 172.21 million square meters. Commercial property sales also contracted. Total sales area reached 401.40 million square meters (down 11.6%), while sales value fell 13.6% to 3,794.5 billion yuan. By the end of June, unsold commercial space totaled 763.15 million square meters, a slight decrease of 0.9% year-on-year. Financing conditions for property developers remained constrained. Capital raised by real estate developers during the period fell 20.2% year-on-year to 4,023.3 billion yuan. Domestic bank loans plunged 31.7% to 571.6 billion yuan, personal mortgage loans fell 24.9% to 513.7 billion yuan, and self-raised capital dropped 16.4% to 1,474.0 billion yuan.