Let the new real estate policy benefit more new citizens

Source: China Youth Daily

Raising the upper limit of provident fund loans to support green and low-carbon buildings, and recently various localities have continued to optimize real estate policies, so that more people are expected to improve their housing needs. However, at the same time, some experts pointed out that new citizens, flexible workers and other groups with low housing provident fund coverage also need to optimize policy support.

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Lower mortgage interest rates, abolish the lower limit of mortgage interest rates for first homes, and implement a "trade-in" policy for housing...... At present, many places are continuing to optimize real estate policies and stabilize the real estate market by "implementing policies according to the city".

The housing provident fund has become one of the "most handy" tools in the "toolbox" of local policies. On April 8 alone, four cities, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenyang and Suzhou, optimized and adjusted their provident fund policies. Among them, Beijing and Guangzhou, as first-tier cities, have raised the maximum amount of provident fund loans, which has attracted widespread attention.

"A similar increase in the quota will have a positive effect on better activating the demand for housing purchases, especially for green buildings. Yan Yuejin, research director of the E-House Research Institute, said that the new provident fund policies in Beijing and Guangzhou focus on green buildings and prefabricated buildings, on the one hand, from the perspective of green housing, on the other hand, it is related to the demand for improved housing, and such policies will help continue to promote the release of improved housing demand.

It is worth noting that in order to allow more people to live in a home, people with low housing provident fund coverage, such as new citizens and flexible employees, need to optimize policy support when buying a house.

Some cities have raised the maximum amount of housing provident fund loans

The increase in the loan limit of the housing provident fund is good news for home buyers, which means that the cost of buying a house can be reduced to a certain extent.

On April 8, the Beijing Housing Provident Fund Center solicited opinions from the public on the "Implementation Measures for Housing Provident Fund to Support the Green Development of Buildings in Beijing (Draft for Comments)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Draft for Comments"), clarifying that the loan amount can be increased by up to 400,000 yuan for employees who use housing provident fund loans to purchase two-star and above green buildings, prefabricated buildings or ultra-low energy consumption buildings.

According to Chen Wenjing, market research director of the China Index Research Institute, "Beijing's increase in provident fund loan support to encourage home buyers to buy green, low-carbon, intelligent and safe houses will also help promote more development enterprises to build high-quality housing." ”

On the same day, Guangzhou issued the "Notice on Matters Concerning the Adjustment of the Maximum Loan Amount of Personal Housing Provident Fund" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), which proposed that the maximum loan amount for a single person to apply for housing provident fund was adjusted from 600,000 yuan to 700,000 yuan, and the maximum loan amount for two or more people was adjusted from 1 million yuan to 1.2 million yuan;

Yang Yongjun, research director of the South China Branch of the China Index Research Institute, believes that Guangzhou's increase in the maximum amount of provident fund loans used by home buyers is conducive to reducing mortgage interest expenses, reducing the cost of home purchases, and better supporting home buyers' rigid and improved housing needs.

In January 2024, Guangzhou issued a new policy to optimize the purchase restriction policy for units above 120 square meters, and support policies such as "sell one buy one" and "rent one buy one". Yang Yongjun pointed out that under the stimulus of the policy, after the Spring Festival, the Guangzhou real estate market ushered in a certain recovery, but it was still not as good as the same period last year. After more than two months, Guangzhou has once again introduced real estate support policies, which is expected to release some potential demand into the market.

Li Yujia, chief researcher of the Housing Policy Research Center of the Guangdong Provincial Urban Planning Institute, is concerned that the trend of large-scale new housing and the improvement of people's housing is obvious, which also leads to the increase in the total price of housing prices to a certain extent, and the pressure on decentralization increases. In his view, increasing the amount of provident fund loans is conducive to boosting the enthusiasm of rigid needs and improved home purchases.

At the same time, many people are also looking forward to the launch of similar new provident fund policies in Shanghai and Shenzhen in the future. A netizen said on social platforms, "When will Shanghai be raised to 1.6 million yuan." Another netizen said, "When will the good news be Shenzhen's turn." ”

Further support for green "good houses"

What is an ultra-low energy building, which real estate is an ultra-low energy building, what is a green building, and when will it be implemented...... After the new housing provident fund policies in Beijing and Guangzhou clarified the focus on supporting low-carbon green buildings, these questions have become the most frequently asked questions by netizens.

Whether it is a green building or an ultra-low energy building, it means choosing more low-carbon materials, using more low-carbon energy-saving technologies, smart technologies, etc., so that the energy consumption of the building is much lower than that of conventional buildings, and the house itself is more environmentally friendly.

"We have to put in the effort to build a good house. During the two sessions of the National People's Congress this year, Ni Hong, Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, once again emphasized that housing development, in the final analysis, is to enable the masses to live better. He hopes that multi-industry cross-border collaboration can be made to jointly build green, low-carbon, intelligent and safe houses, so that the masses can live healthily and use safely. Green and low carbon is one of the hallmarks of a good house.

The construction of low-energy buildings, especially ultra-low-energy buildings, is one of the inevitable paths for the high-quality development of the construction industry, and it is also one of the standards for a good house. Chen Wenjing believes that the green buildings, prefabricated buildings or ultra-low energy buildings mentioned in the new Beijing Provident Fund policy can be said to be the embodiment of "good houses".

In recent years, when transferring residential land in Beijing, developers are required to promise that the project must meet the two-star standard of green buildings, adopt prefabricated buildings and achieve an assembly rate of 60%, and some plots also require bidders participating in the on-site lottery to submit a "Letter of Commitment for High-standard Residential Construction", which puts forward higher requirements for building standards.

Chen Wenjing pointed out that in recent years, the residential land traded in Beijing is basically two-star and above green buildings, so the scope of the Beijing provident fund policy support is wider, the current new housing projects generally meet the conditions, and the qualified second-hand housing is also within the scope of the provident fund support.

Yan Yuejin said that the meaning of Guangzhou's policy is very clear, not only to support the relevant requirements of green buildings and prefabricated buildings, but also to increase support for the rigid and improved housing needs of depositors. This fully shows that the policy is a multi-objective system, but in essence, it is all about good living or high-quality housing.

"Guangzhou's new provident fund policy is conducive to accelerating the modernization of the construction industry and promoting the sustainable development of the industry. Yang Yongjun said.

Of course, a good house means that the cost of building is likely to rise. This has also caused many home buyers to worry: "This kind of house is expensive when you think about it." ”

What kind of interest rate reduction effect can be brought about by raising the upper limit of the housing provident fund? Some people in the industry are not optimistic about this. Li Yujia said that based on the consideration of housing prices in Guangzhou, the husband and wife can borrow up to 1.2 million yuan in provident fund loans, which can only cover the housing loan needs of low-cost areas in the periphery, and there is a high probability that they cannot cover the central area.

The same problem exists in Beijing. For many young people who have been working for a short time, even if they can borrow up to 1.6 million yuan to buy a building that meets the requirements of the Consultation Paper, they still need to choose a commercial loan as a supplement in the face of current housing prices, and the amount of supplement is not small.

"New citizens need more CPF loan support"

"New citizens need more CPF loan support, and the coverage rate of CPF for this group of people is not high. Li Yujia pointed out that most of the employees who have fixed jobs in institutions, state-owned enterprises, and public institutions with higher provident fund contribution coverage rates are benefited, and relatively speaking, the housing ownership rate of this group of people is relatively high.

In June 2023, the "2022 Annual Report of the National Housing Provident Fund" jointly released by the three departments showed that the benefits of the housing provident fund system continued to expand, with more than 169 million paid-in employees in 2022, an increase of 3.31% over the previous year.

On April 8, the Suzhou Housing Provident Fund Management Center issued a new provident fund policy for flexible employment groups, that is, the launch of the "Happy Living in Suzhou City" deposit and loan product for flexible employment personnel, which opened a new model of productized payment of housing provident fund, which attracted many people to "like".

Flexibly employed persons can enjoy the convenience of "flexible deposit and withdrawal at any time" when they deposit the provident fund, truly realize "zero deposit and zero withdrawal", and at the same time enjoy various policy subsidies of the housing provident fund.

After the release of the new policy, a real estate agent in Suzhou immediately said on social platforms that flexible access is equivalent to a demand deposit, with an interest rate of 2.5%, a considerable deposit interest rate, and a provident fund loan for buying a house.

This is equivalent to a flexible employee opening a "current account" with "zero deposit and zero withdrawal". Assuming that 30,000 yuan is saved for one year, you can get 1.5% of the annual account interest, a total of 450 yuan, an account opening subsidy of 100 yuan, an interest subsidy of 1%, a total of 300 yuan, a total of 850 yuan for a year, and an annualized income of more than 2.5%;

If flexible employees want to get the loan amount as soon as possible, if they meet the loan conditions, they can enjoy the housing provident fund loan amount of 800,000 yuan after a single deposit of 43,000 yuan and 6 months after depositing, 59,000 yuan for a single payment, and 1.1 million yuan for the housing provident fund after 6 months of deposit, and 1.65 million yuan for a single deposit of 88,000 yuan and 6 months after saving (need to meet the relevant policies of "Building a Dream Suzhou City"). At the same time, it also enjoys various subsidies, with an annualized income of more than 2.5%.

"This leverage effect is very obvious, if you want to get a provident fund loan of 1 million yuan, you only need a principal of 50,000 yuan, so in fact, it is of great significance for flexible employees, and it is also very inspiring for other cities. Yan Yuejin believes that in order to better support reasonable housing consumption demand, Suzhou's model has certain reference significance for various places.

Yan Yuejin believes that since the second quarter, the trade-in, the cancellation of the lower limit of the mortgage interest rate, and the provident fund policy belong to the three policies with a high frequency of optimizing housing policies in various places, which can also be understood as the "three axes" of policy easing in the second quarter, which has really reduced the cost of buying a house and transaction costs. Such policies fully illustrate that in the second quarter, the housing purchase policies in various places were further optimized and relaxed, further releasing the relaxed environment. In Yan Yuejin's eyes, at present, first-tier cities still have relatively rich policy tools.

China Youth Daily and China Youth Network Intern Reporter Zhao Limei Reporter Zhang Junbin 2024-04-16 06 Edition