■夏金彪
Not only consumer goods such as cars and home appliances can enjoy the "trade-in" policy, but more and more cities have also launched "trade-in" policies for housing.
Recently, six departments including the Zhengzhou Municipal Housing Security and Real Estate Administration Bureau jointly issued the "Zhengzhou City Work Plan for Promoting the Real Estate Market to "Sell the Old and Buy the New, and Trade in the Old for the New" (Trial)", planning to complete 10,000 sets of second-hand housing in 2024, of which 5,000 are collected and stored by the government. Subsequently, Liangxi District of Wuxi, Hai'an, Jiangsu, Changshu and other cities have also launched the housing "trade-in" policy.
In the past two years, many places have introduced various support policies for housing improvement needs, involving the implementation of "mortgage transfer" in second-hand housing transactions, the reduction of interest rates on existing housing loans, and the implementation of tax exemptions and exemptions for "recognising housing without recognising loans" and "selling old and buying new". However, some cities are still facing problems such as the decline in the rate of new housing, the increase in the number of second-hand housing listings, and the poor circulation between new and second-hand housing. Many places have explored the "trade-in" of housing, hoping to smooth the housing replacement link and further activate the real estate market.
The so-called "trade-in" means that the buyers first lock in the new houses, and then the intermediaries sell the old houses, or the real estate enterprises and third parties directly purchase the old houses, and the local government can provide subsidies for the replacement of houses or give tax exemptions and exemptions.
At present, there are roughly three modes of "trade-in" housing. The first model is a market-oriented model in which developers and intermediaries build platforms for consignment sales. Buyers can subscribe and lock in the property from the developer, and the old house will be sold by the entrusted real estate agency, if the old house is sold within a certain period of time, the new house can be purchased according to the process, and if the old house is not sold, the new house subscription fee will be refunded. The second model is the housing subsidy model. Local governments provide a certain degree of deed tax incentives or housing purchase subsidies for housing "trade-in", so as to reduce the cost of housing purchase and stimulate the demand for housing replacement to enter the market. The third model is the direct acquisition of state-owned enterprises.
It is worth pointing out that the third model formulates a second-hand housing acquisition plan through state-owned enterprises, and the old houses that meet certain conditions can be replaced by the new houses launched by state-owned enterprises, and after third-party evaluation, the old house prices are used to deduct part of the new house payment. The old houses recycled by state-owned enterprises can be used as affordable housing and talent apartments. In September last year, Taicang, Jiangsu Province, took the lead in adopting this model, promoting the "trade-in" of housing. Because this model has a "back-up mechanism" for the sale of old houses, this makes the certainty of changing houses increase, and plays a positive role in the release of housing improvement demand.
According to agency statistics, from 2023 onwards, more than 30 cities have introduced housing "trade-in" policies, and housing "trade-in" has been upgraded from the spontaneous behavior of developers and intermediaries to a mainstream regulatory tool planned and led by the government.
Zhengzhou's housing "trade-in" policy combines three models: marketization, state-owned enterprise acquisition and government subsidies. The first is to encourage the organization of Zhengzhou excellent real estate brokerage institutions, real estate development enterprises and the active participation of the masses in the exchange (purchase) of housing, in accordance with the market-oriented process to encourage the masses to "sell the old and buy the new, the old for the new", and plan to complete the second-hand housing "sell the old and buy the new, the old for the new" 5,000 sets throughout the year. The second is to purchase second-hand housing through Zhengzhou Urban Development Group Co., Ltd., the acquisition subject designated by the government, and the masses can sell the housing to the state-owned platform company and then buy new housing, and plan to complete 5,000 units throughout the year. According to Zhengzhou's housing "trade-in" policy, as long as the newly built commercial housing purchased through the above two modes is within 2024, it can enjoy the current preferential policy of 30% of the deed tax subsidy.
It is foreseeable that Zhengzhou's housing "trade-in" policy will be conducive to revitalizing second-hand housing, further smoothing the chain of first-hand and second-hand housing, releasing the demand for improved housing, and helping the real estate market to recover. At the same time, the acquired old houses will be used to enrich the supply of affordable rental housing and achieve the supply target of affordable housing.
Data from research institutions show that the proportion of improvement demand is increasing year by year, and most of the first- and second-tier cities have high improvement demand. For example, the improvement demand in Beijing, Tianjin, and Xiamen is significantly higher than the rigid demand, and the transaction volume of the improvement group in the three cities is more than 1.5 times the transaction volume of the rigid demand. Beijing's demand for improvement accounts for more than 50%, surpassing rigid demand to become a new driving force for the growth of the real estate market.
It is expected that in the future, under the dual goals of ensuring the steady and healthy development of real estate and completing the supply of affordable housing, more cities will explore and optimize the "trade-in" policy of commercial housing according to the city's policies, so as to fully release the demand for improved housing.
Image source of this article: photo.com
Chief Producer丨Wang Hui and Che Haigang
Producer丨Li Piguang, Wang Yu, Liu Weimin
Editor-in-Chief丨Mao Jinghui Editor丨Chen Shuhan