The rebound in property market sales has been transmitted to the upstream and downstream of the real estate industry. At present, it has been identified that the three major tracks of green building materials and waterproof repair (building materials), kitchen appliance subcategories (home appliances), and second-hand house renovation and partial renovation (home improvement) are the first to usher in the recovery of the economy. The core driving force comes from the triple support of the policy combination, the explosion of demand for existing housing, and the early transformation of leading companies to adapt to the market.
On the building materials track, green waterproofing leads the way
In the first quarter of 2026, green building materials revenue increased by 12% year-on-year, with the scale exceeding 61 billion yuan, and the full-year target hit 300 billion yuan.
The demand side has clear policy support. In the first quarter, nearly 120 billion yuan of special urban renewal bonds were issued, which will be combined with no less than 15 trillion yuan of urban renewal investment in the next five years, directly driving the release of demand for green building materials, waterproofing repairs, etc.
Leading companies have made arrangements in advance to adapt to the existing market: Beijing New Construction Building Materials has launched prefabricated interior solutions, with combined revenue reaching 25.28 billion yuan in 2025, and waterproofing business has become the second growth curve; Oriental Yuhong has built a “waterproof + N” business matrix, focusing on expanding existing market businesses such as building repairs and civil building materials.
Changsha alone has completed the renovation of 2,336 old residential areas, which has directly stimulated the release of regional building materials stock demand.
In the home appliance track, the kitchen appliance segment breaks out
The home appliance industry is showing structural repair, and the kitchen appliance category suitable for existing house renovations is leading the growth rate: in the first quarter of 2026, online sales of desktop dishwashers increased by 117.1% year-on-year, and offline sales soared by 206.1% year-on-year; offline sales of liftable range hoods increased by 50.1% year-on-year.
The policy side has a significant driving effect. From January to April 2026, the trade-in of home appliances drove sales of 141.54 billion yuan. After the expansion of subsidies in Jiangsu, the demand for replacement of kitchen and bathroom products such as range hoods, gas stoves, and dishwashers led all categories.
According to the “15th Five-Year Plan for Urban Renewal”, the old renovation market will generate replacement demand for 13.65 million sets of stoves and 1.64 million sets of dishwashers in 2026. The kitchen appliances track is the most certain.
In the home improvement track, existing renovation takes precedence
Home improvement is the fastest-moving track. Currently, renovation of existing homes accounts for nearly 60% of the home improvement market, becoming the core engine of industry growth.
In the first quarter of 2026, Beike’s home decoration business revenue was 2.3 billion yuan, with a profit margin of 36.2%, a record high, which directly corresponds to the platform’s second-hand housing transaction volume increasing by 12% year-on-year.
Second-hand housing transactions in first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai account for more than 80%, and they are the leaders in the recovery of home decoration. After Changsha implemented the transfer policy with mortgage, the efficiency of second-hand housing transactions has greatly improved, directly driving the increase in demand for renovation of existing housing.
Leading companies have also launched standardized products to adapt to existing needs: Easyhome integrates full-link resources to launch closed-loop renewal solutions, and the Changsha “Quick Home” platform launches age-appropriate minor modification packages that do not require breaking walls, both of which have received good market feedback.
The pace of repair is differentiated, and leading companies benefit more
There are differences in the repair speed of the three types of tracks: home decoration directly meets the demand for second-hand housing transactions, and repair is the fastest; building materials benefit from the dual pull of public investment and household consumption, followed by; only kitchen appliances and other sub-categories of home appliances have clear growth, and the demand for other categories is still to be released.
Regional differentiation is also very obvious: second-hand housing transactions in first-tier cities are active, and home improvement has the strongest recovery momentum; strong new first-tier cities such as Hangzhou and Changsha rely on policy stimulus, and there are local bright spots in the market; demand in third- and fourth-tier cities has not yet been fully released.
The enterprise side is also divided. Leading enterprises that laid out the existing market in advance have benefited significantly, while small and medium-sized enterprises that still rely on new home orders still face growth pressure.
