On June 15, 2026, data released by the China Building Materials Circulation Association showed that in May, sales of building materials and home furnishing stores above designated size nationwide reached 128.694 billion yuan, a month-on-month increase of 15.07% and a year-on-year increase of 2.86%.
During the same period, the national building materials and home furnishing prosperity index BHI rebounded to 129.68 points.
However, cumulative sales from January to May were 548.496 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 4.01%.
This contrast reveals a fundamental change in the market growth logic: while short-term promotions and policy incentives drive the month-on-month surge, demand for existing renovations is replacing the traditional new home market and becoming the core force supporting the industry’s resilience.
The association’s analysis pointed out that the market’s outstanding performance in May was the result of the superposition of multiple positive factors.
First of all, there is the consumption boom during the “May Day” Golden Week. The holidays bring concentrated consumption, and major stores have various promotional activities.
Followed by the traditional wedding decoration peak season, seasonal demand is concentrated in May.
Furthermore, trade-in subsidies have been implemented intensively. More than ten provinces and cities including Shanghai, Chongqing, Anhui, Jiangsu, and Fujian simultaneously launched special expanded subsidies for smart homes, kitchen appliances, and aging-friendly homes in May.
These policies have effectively lowered the decision-making threshold for consumers through optimization processes such as “instant lottery and instant replenishment”.
According to the Ministry of Commerce’s commercial big data, as of May 4, the trade-in of consumer goods in 2026 has driven sales of 629.27 billion yuan.
Behind the data, a more profound trend is the switching of the growth engine of the building materials and home furnishing market.
The stock renovation market has officially become the most stable and core growth pole in the industry.
On the one hand, the national second-hand housing market continues to be hot, and the high transaction volume has driven a concentrated release of demand for overall renovation of existing houses, partial renovation of kitchens and bathrooms, aging-friendly renovations, and whole-house quality upgrades.
On the other hand, the national “Fifteenth Five-Year Plan for Urban Renewal” was implemented, clearly stating that during the “15th Five-Year Plan” period, 115,000 old communities and 4,000 urban villages will be renovated.
This has brought sustained trillion-level market demand to the home furnishing, building materials, kitchen and bathroom and other tracks.
This structural change has effectively offset the downward pressure on demand for traditional building materials caused by weak new home construction, and supported the overall resilient operation of the industry.
Judging from the performance of each BHI sub-index, the market presents the microscopic characteristics of “ice and fire”.
In May, the “popularity index” reached 213.23 points, a sharp increase of 55.67 points from the previous month, ranking first in terms of increase.
This shows that under the stimulation of promotions and policies, the customer flow of terminal stores has increased significantly.
The manager confidence index has fallen slightly from the previous month, but the absolute value is still 56.30 (above 50 means optimistic about the market outlook), which is in a relatively high prosperity range.
Industry practitioners’ confidence in the growth of the mid- to long-term market, especially the stock transformation track, has not wavered.
The market recovery has not been uniform, and the structural differentiation within the industry has become prominent.
The manufacturing industry such as non-metallic mineral products, traditional building materials and home accessories related to the real estate chain is weak and has weak demand.
However, subdivided categories such as energy-saving doors and windows, waterproof pipes, prefabricated home decoration components, and environmentally friendly coatings driven by urban renewal and renovation of old houses continue to enjoy high prosperity and are more resilient.
This differentiation is also reflected on the consumer side.
The “2026 China Home Decoration Consumption Trend Report” released by Tubatu Big Data Research Institute shows that the industry has completely jumped out of low-price involution, and quality self-occupancy has become the dominant consumption logic. The proportion of upgrade budgets of 80,000-120,000 yuan has risen sharply to 48.4%.
At the same time, the proportion of home decoration demand in new first-tier cities soared to 45.70%, becoming the industry’s largest growth pole.
The market rebound in May sent a clear signal.
Although cumulative sales still fell slightly year-on-year, the building materials and home furnishing market showed significant resilience driven by both policy support and rising demand.
The continued policy dividends, the optimization of trade-in subsidies and the comprehensive advancement of urban renewal planning will provide long-term and stable demand support for the existing renovation market.
The consumption trend is clear, the market focus is shifting towards quality, intelligence and greening, and consumers are more willing to pay for material quality and living comfort.
For the industry, the key to future competition lies in whether it can accurately grasp the demand for existing transformation and provide high-quality solutions in energy-saving, smart, aging-friendly and other segments.
The market growth curve is shifting from incremental expansion to a new stage of stock improvement.
