I. Policy Enhancement: A Comprehensive Rollout from National Planning to Local Implementation

Prefabricated construction is entering a period of intensive policy implementation. At the national level, the "14th Five-Year Plan for Energy Conservation and Green Building Development in the Construction Sector" explicitly sets a target of 30% of newly built urban buildings being prefabricated by 2025. The "Implementation Plan for Peaking Carbon Emissions in the Urban and Rural Construction Sector" further raises the 2030 target to 40%. At the local level, policies across various regions continue to be strengthened:

Guangzhou has unveiled a “three-step” strategy: starting in 2026, 100% of residential land will adopt prefabricated construction methods, and by 2030, the industry’s total output value will aim to reach 500 billion yuan.

In the first three quarters, the share of prefabricated buildings in Hunan reached 64.6%, with three cities—Xiangtan, Changsha, and others—exceeding 66% and leading the nation.

Chongqing, Shanghai, Shanxi, and other regions are promoting the deep integration of intelligent construction and prefabricated buildings through financial subsidies and pilot programs.

II. Market Boom: An Industrial Ecosystem Takes Shape Amidst Trillion-Dollar Scale

Policy-driven initiatives are giving rise to market benefits. According to data from Guorong Securities, China’s prefabricated building market size exceeded 1.2 trillion yuan in 2023 and is set to continue expanding through 2025, forming a complete industrial ecosystem.

Upstream: Jinyu Group, Hailuo Cement, and others ensure the supply of raw materials;

Midstream: The China Architecture & Building Technology Group leads the design, while companies such as Jinggong Steel Structure and Hangxiao Steel Structure are responsible for component fabrication (with 138 registered enterprises in Shanghai and a production capacity of approximately 4.5 million cubic meters).

Downstream developers—including Vanke, Poly, and Far East Horizon—are accelerating project implementation. Among them, Poly has over 15 million square meters of projects under construction in 2024, and through technological innovation, it has reduced costs by 35 yuan per square meter. Far East Horizon has applied its innovative technologies to over 5 million square meters in the past three years, accounting for more than 65%.

III. Core Advantages: A Dual Breakthrough in Green Transformation and Quality Enhancement

Compared to traditional cast-in-place construction, the advantages of prefabricated construction are concentrated in three key dimensions:

1. Efficiency Revolution: Prefabrication in component factories combined with on-site assembly significantly shortens construction periods by 30% to 50%, aligning with property developers’ need to reduce costs and boost efficiency.

2. Green and Low-Carbon: Reducing energy consumption by 20%, water usage by 63%, and construction waste by 91%, making it a core pathway for carbon reduction in the construction industry.

3. Quality Enhancement: Standardized production optimizes concrete performance, enabling the new construction to comprehensively outperform traditional buildings in terms of seismic resistance, sound insulation, and thermal insulation. The modular “Good House” system jointly launched by China Construction Eighth Bureau and China Construction Technology further achieves a dual breakthrough—increasing usable floor space while reducing maintenance costs—and meets the residential needs outlined by the “Six No’s, Six Protections, Three Savings, and Three Essentials.”

IV. Realistic Challenges: Breakthrough Costs and Standard Bottlenecks

Despite the promising outlook, the industry still faces a triple challenge:

Cost pressures: The production and transportation costs of prefabricated components are relatively high, resulting in insufficient economic viability for some projects.

Lack of standards: Technical specifications and acceptance systems have not yet been fully harmonized, and regional development remains uneven.

Talent Gap: There is a shortage of versatile talents who possess expertise in design, manufacturing, and construction, which is hindering the industry’s acceleration.

V. Future Outlook: Smart Construction Drives High-Quality Development

With technological advancements and policy improvements, prefabricated buildings will evolve in three main directions:

1. Intelligent Integration: Deep application of BIM technology and IoT to achieve digitalization across the entire design-production-construction workflow.

2. Modular Upgrades: Guangzhou has explicitly set an annual target of no less than 10% for the proportion of modular buildings, with the degree of integration continuing to increase.

3. Deepening Marketization: As leading companies leverage technological innovation to reduce costs and as consumer awareness of green living grows, the industry will shift from policy-driven growth to market-driven, self-sustaining growth.