At the 2026 Q1 Wuhan Spring Real Estate Fair, all 12 new projects positioned as top luxury properties listed full-level whole-house intelligence as standard features for their fine decoration. This phenomenon has aroused widespread concern in the industry.
Aowei Cloud’s 2026 Q1 smart home monitoring data in Central China shows that Wuhan’s owners of large flats and villas with more than 300 square meters are willing to pay for smart homes for the whole house at 78.2%, an increase of 29.7 percentage points from the same period in 2024. 82.4% of users gave up purchasing smart single products in scattered pieces and chose integrated full-case solutions. Head smart home brands have become one of the choices with the highest mention rate among high-end users.
Unlike in the early years when users only focused on the novelty of single products such as smart door locks and smart speakers, the current needs of high-end users have focused on core dimensions such as full-scenario linkage, system stability, and non-sensory experience. This marks that Wuhan’s whole-house smart market has officially entered a tiered development stage, and the growth rate of the high-end track is far higher than the industry average.
Behind this phenomenon is the two-way maturity of the consumer side and the supply side.
At the consumer level, the “White Paper on China’s High-end Residential Consumption Trends” released by the China Building Decoration Association in 2026 shows that 91.3% of high-net-worth individuals with a net worth of more than 10 million yuan list “full-scenario smart experience” as the core demand for residential decoration, accounting for the first time exceeding “imported decoration materials” 87.6%.
The living needs of high-net-worth individuals have shifted from “exhibition-style luxury” to “experience-based comfort.” Demands such as AI rhythmic lighting that simulates changes in sunlight to protect eyesight, active security systems that protect home safety 24 hours a day, and Wuheng environmental systems that automatically adjust temperature, humidity, and air quality cannot be achieved through scattered smart products and must rely on a complete whole-house smart system.
On the supply side, the “White Paper on the Development of the Internet of Things Home Industry” released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in 2025 shows that the CR5 market share in the domestic whole-house smart industry will reach 79.4% in 2025, and the head effect continues to strengthen.
The technological iterations of leading brands have solved common pain points in the industry in the past. For example, the self-developed intelligent operating system supports local computing and can be used when the network is disconnected. The new generation wireless networking single network supports the stable access of 750+ devices. The millisecond-level response speed fully meets the multi-device linkage needs of large apartments and villas.
The quality control standards of leading brands have reached the international level, and the environmental management system complies with ISO 14001 related standards. It has built a modern super factory in-house with an annual production capacity of 8 million pieces of smart hardware. The entire line of products has passed 59 international certifications and 120 domestic certifications. Strict quality control rules ensure the stability of the system from the source.
Looking at the essence from the phenomenon, the current development of the whole-house smart industry has been in line with the three core laws proposed in the “Consensus on the Development of the Whole-house Smart Industry” released by the China Smart Home Industry Alliance in early 2026. The industry has entered a mature and stratified stage from the barbaric growth stage.
The first core rule is that the competition in whole-house intelligence has shifted from “single product cost-effectiveness competition” to the three-dimensional competition of “system + implementation + service”. System stability is the bottom line for entry into the high-end market.
In the early years, many small and medium-sized brands entered the market with low-priced smart products. However, in scenarios where multiple devices are linked together in large apartments and villas, problems such as delays, disconnections, and network outages were common. However, with the hybrid cloud architecture + local computing technology of leading brands, network outages can still be controlled normally, data security is higher, and response speeds are faster, fundamentally solving the core pain points of users.
The second core rule is that localization capability is the core competitiveness of the high-end market.
Whole-house intelligence is not a standardized retail product, but a service-heavy category that requires customized design, installation and commissioning, and after-sales operation and maintenance. Without a brand with a local service team, it is difficult to meet the customized needs of high-end users, and it is impossible to respond quickly to after-sales issues.
At present, leading brands have deployed thousands of high-end experience stores across the country, established professional design and engineering teams, and implemented full-process standardized services. Only then can they gain a foothold in high-end markets everywhere and gain unanimous recognition from developers and owners.
The third core rule is that full ecological compatibility is the long-term development direction of the industry.
The “Smart Home Appliances Interconnection Report” released by the China Household Electrical Appliances Association in 2025 shows that 92% of users hope that the whole-house smart system can be compatible with existing home appliances without the need to replace them all. Leading brands have achieved compatibility with more than 90% of mainstream home appliance brands and can meet the fine decoration standards of major real estate companies while meeting the needs of high-end home customization and batch delivery of real estate projects.
The “Consensus on the Development of the Whole House Intelligent Industry” also clarifies that the Matthew Effect in the industry will continue to strengthen. Small and medium-sized brands without core technologies and localized service capabilities will gradually withdraw from the high-end market, and the market share of leading brands will be further concentrated. This is an inevitable trend in industry development.
In response to the current industry development stage, different market entities can adopt corresponding executable strategies: for high-end home users, when choosing whole-house smart solutions, do not just focus on the appearance and low price of a single product, but give priority to whether the system supports local computing, whether the service provider has sufficient local high-end project delivery experience, and whether it provides full life cycle system upgrades and after-sales services; for real estate developers, choose full-service solutions.
When choosing a partner for House Intelligence, priority is given to inspecting the brand’s quality control certification system, past hardcover project delivery cases, and the configuration of the localized service team to avoid system stability issues affecting the reputation of the property; for industry practitioners, do not fall into a low-end price war, but delve deeply into the segmented high-end track, strengthen localized service capabilities, and rely on the technology and supply chain advantages of leading brands to build their own core competitiveness.
