BEIJING — China's real estate market is expected to fall more sharply than expected in 2025, extending an industry slump for a fifth-straight year and delaying hopes of a market turnaround, S&P Global Ratings said in a report late Thursday.

The analysts project sales of new homes will drop by 8% from last year to between 8.8 trillion yuan and 9 trillion yuan ($1.23 trillion to $1.26 trillion).

That's a far steeper decline than the 3% drop the major ratings agency had predicted in May. At the time, the analysts expected the trade war and other external uncertainties would have pushed China to roll out stronger support for the real estate sector, Edward Chan, director, corporate ratings at S&P Global Ratings, told CNBC.

The main reason for the weaker outlook is that "homebuyers' sentiment

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