China Property: Weakened August; Completed-Sales Details Bear Watching

New home sales weakened further in August amid softer construction activity, as we expected. Completed-sales policy is likely to widen the K-shaped trends between new and existing homes, weighing on developers' sales and earnings outlook. Rebased national sales fell 12.1% y-y by value and 14.8% y-y by volume, bringing 8M26 declines to 13.0% y-y by value and 12.1% by volume. NBS announced the existing home sales volume for the first time, growing 10.6% y-y in 8M26, indicating largely flat combined sales YTD (-1.0% y-y). With the completed-sales policy limiting the formation of new launches, we expect the divergence between new and existing homes to widen in coming years, boosting the transition towards a secondary-dominant housing market. New starts fell 31% y-y and completions fell 28% y-y in August, bringing 8M26 declines to 25% and 24%, respectively;