In recent years, the three major building materials categories—ceramic building materials, flooring, and ceilings—have faced growth bottlenecks. Compared to their peak periods, production or sales have declined significantly, increasing operational pressure on some companies. With traditional growth engines slowing, where exactly do the future opportunities lie in the home furnishing and building materials industry? Smart technology, age-friendly features, and interior design improvements have undoubtedly become mainstream trends, expected to create a number of successful companies and reshape business models and product forms. The smart home industry has already reached a scale of hundreds of billions of yuan and is poised to move towards a trillion-yuan scale. Smart beds, smart mattresses, smart toilets, robot vacuum cleaners, smart lighting, smart sofas, and smart appliances are gradually opening up the market, giving rise to an increasing number of powerful brands. Many smart home brands are expanding their online revenue while accelerating the development of physical stores. For example, Tmall Genie has established flagship stores in over 70 cities nationwide; Aqara opened multiple stores in Chongqing, Guiyang, Lin’an, and other cities in 2025; and Shuford smart beds achieved global sales of over 10 million units, with its offline stores concentrated in economically developed cities. More and more distributors are also making smart home business a transformation direction. Fuson Home has expanded its number of smart home brand merchants to dozens in recent years, becoming a high-end consumer market for smart homes. The 2025 Smart Home Festival had over 30 participating brands, covering smart appliances, smart lighting, and whole-house smart systems. The market for senior-friendly housing is also showing a booming trend. Since 2025, the number of users transacting with senior-friendly products on JD.com has increased by 228% year-on-year. Sales of senior-friendly products are performing well across many channels, with companies showing great enthusiasm and consumer demand accelerating. Policy support is continuously increasing, the new generation of elderly people has ample purchasing power, and the market environment is gradually maturing. Products in scenarios such as senior-friendly bathroom spaces, senior-friendly living spaces, and senior-friendly home safety protection, such as senior-friendly smart toilets and senior-friendly safety handrails, show outstanding growth potential. At the 2025 China International Furniture Fair (Guangzhou) Civil Furniture Exhibition, the aging-friendly section featured numerous age-friendly products that garnered significant attention, with leading companies also promoting comprehensive solutions for senior living spaces. Aging-friendly renovation is a promising sector, already included in the national subsidy program and with relevant national standards being released. Although the market is still in its incubation stage, the large elderly population and rising purchasing power will bring continuous orders. In the existing housing market, partial renovation, as an important segment, is closely linked to urban renewal and is expected to become a hot phenomenon in the coming years. Partial renovation refers to the renovation and refurbishment of specific spaces or single functions. China has a large number of existing homes, with a high proportion of residences over 10 years old. The demand for renovations in areas such as kitchens and bathrooms is high, and the fact that the volume of second-hand home transactions exceeds that of new homes also fuels a large demand for partial renovations. Consumer acceptance has significantly improved, with related topics on social media garnering hundreds of millions of views. Policies are promoting localized renovations through subsidies and other means. An increasing number of community-based renovation stores are operating, undertaking comprehensive renovation and furniture/appliance replacement services. However, localized renovations also face challenges such as diverse work types, fragmented orders, low average order value, high delivery costs, and difficulties in scaling up operations. If companies can solve challenges related to “small orders, high efficiency, and high trust,” they are expected to seize growth opportunities in the current market.
New Trends in the Home Furnishing and Building Materials Industry: Smart Technology, Age-Friendly Design, and Interior Renovation Leading Future Development
With growth in traditional building material categories—such as architectural ceramics, flooring, and ceilings—currently hitting a bottleneck, where do future opportunities lie for the home furnishing and building materials industry? Smart technology, age-friendly design, and partial renovation have emerged as mainstream trends poised to reshape business models and product forms; this article provides a detailed analysis.
