diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index 724417a3..64e1c5aa 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
     - `markdown-preview` displays the buffer name as the page title
     - skip export tests if export command is not installed
     - reduce memory allocations in property checking functions
+    - improve performance to check properties in range by using c functions
 
   [gh-937]: https://github.com/jrblevin/markdown-mode/pull/937
 
diff --git a/markdown-mode.el b/markdown-mode.el
index 00a57f16..87be51a2 100644
--- a/markdown-mode.el
+++ b/markdown-mode.el
@@ -2931,19 +2931,16 @@ This may be useful for tables and Pandoc's line_blocks extension."
 Also returns t if PROP is a list containing one of the PROP-VALUES.
 Return nil otherwise."
   (catch 'found
-    (cl-loop
-     with props = nil
-     for loc from begin to end
-     do
-     (when (setq props (get-text-property loc prop))
-       (cond ((listp props)
+    (let ((loc begin))
+      (while (<= loc end)
+        (when-let* ((props (get-text-property loc prop)))
+          (if (listp props)
               ;; props is a list, check for membership
               (dolist (val prop-values)
-                (when (memq val props) (throw 'found loc))))
-             (t
-              ;; props is a scalar, check for equality
-              (dolist (val prop-values)
-                (when (eq val props) (throw 'found loc)))))))))
+                (when (memq val props) (throw 'found loc)))
+            (dolist (val prop-values)
+              (when (eq val props) (throw 'found loc)))))
+        (setq loc (next-single-property-change loc prop nil (1+ end)))))))
 
 (defun markdown-range-properties-exist (begin end props)
   (cl-loop