Every reporter: Huang Wanyin Every editor: Wei Wenyi
More and more cities support the "trade-in" of commercial housing.
On April 23, the first-tier city of Shenzhen also joined the ranks of "trade-in" for commercial housing. According to the latest statistics from the China Index Research Institute, since last year, more than 40 cities have supported the "trade-in" of commercial housing.
However, the reporter of "Daily Economic News" combed and found that the "old for new" policy of commercial housing launched by the above-mentioned cities is different, and the operating rules are also different. Under different policy support, the effect of "trade-in" also shows differences.
Taking Zhengzhou as an example, as of the afternoon of April 24, more than 180 sets of "trade-in second-hand houses" have been registered in the Zhengzhou real estate transaction service platform system, accounting for 36% of the pilot phase of the acquisition plan, and the total price of the house is 290,000-3.18 million yuan, which is less than 4 days from the official launch of the pilot work of "selling the old and buying the new and exchanging the old for the new" in Zhengzhou City. In an interview with reporters on April 24, Shenzhen's local real estate agency Le Youjia said that less than a week after they started the "trade-in" pilot project, there were 7 signed customers.
However, in the eyes of industry insiders, due to the long time of second-hand housing transactions and evaluations, the overall landing effect of the "old for new" policy is not yet obvious. The "trade-in" of housing is intended to link the first and second houses and reduce transaction costs, but at the same time, there are pain points such as high participation threshold for second-hand housing, low appraisal price or transaction price of second-hand housing, and few options for replaceable new houses.
The biggest pain point is selling the old house
In fact, as early as 2023, a number of cities have supported housing "trade-in" activities. Since the beginning of this year, more and more cities have joined in.
From the perspective of the ways to support "trade-in" in various places, there are mainly two types: one is that the real estate enterprise joint brokerage agency gives priority to the sale of the old house, and if the old house is sold within a certain period of time, the new house is purchased according to the process;
On April 23, the Shenzhen Real Estate Association and the Shenzhen Real Estate Agency Association jointly launched the "old for new" which belongs to the first type. Previously, on April 19, Leyoujia and LVGEM Baishizhou officially launched the "old for new" activity, and there are currently 7 customers who have signed contracts to participate in the activity.
Source: Le Youjia
Leyoujia explained that one of the core terms of "trade-in" is to help owners sell their old houses as soon as possible. According to the survey results, the most important motivation for customers participating in the "trade-in" is to sell their old homes quickly, accounting for 70.8%. After the launch of the "trade-in", many owners took the initiative to contact their brokers for advice.
For trade-in projects, Leyoujia also has a choice, and its new project is LVGEM Baishizhou project located in Nanshan District, Shenzhen, and the price is also attractive. The unit price of the project starts at 83,000 yuan/square meter after discount, the price of second-hand houses in the surrounding area is 130,000-150,000 yuan/square meter, and the prices of new and second-hand houses are upside down by 35%-40%.
"We understand that in the current trade-in orders, the difference between most of the old houses and the new houses is not large, and the payment obtained after the sale of the old houses can cover more than 60% of the total price of the new houses, and the customers also have a certain economic accumulation, so the economic pressure will not be great. Leyoujia said that in the process, customers can lock the intended property for 2 months. If the old house is not sold, the customer can choose to cancel the new house without liability for breach of contract.
However, in the view of Li Yujia, chief researcher of the Housing Policy Research Center of the Guangdong Provincial Urban and Rural Planning Institute, the biggest pain point of "trade-in" is the sale of old houses. "At present, developers participate in trade-in agreements, and the period of locking in the intended property is often about 2 months, which means that the selling cycle is often about 2 months, but it is often difficult to sell second-hand houses within 2 months. Therefore, in order to obtain the preferential price of 'buying a new house', the seller must be able to reduce the listing price when 'selling the old', that is, reduce the loss of the listing price and get compensation for buying a new house. ”
The reporter learned that whether it is a self-owned transaction or a unified acquisition of old houses, the proportion of old houses to new houses is generally 60%-80%, and the highest is not more than 90%. There are also cities that have clarified the specific deduction ratio. For example, Liangxi District, Wuxi City, clearly pointed out in the "trade-in" announcement that the total price of the stock of second-hand commercial housing should not be higher than 60% of the total price of the new housing purchase, and the designated real estate is 5.
In different cities and under different policy models, the price of second-hand housing deduction is also different, some are lower than the market price, and some are close to or slightly higher than the market price. A second-hand house owner in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, said that her second-hand house was officially acquired in the process of "trade-in", and its final appraisal price was basically the same as the market price. If you go through the market-oriented transaction, you may not be able to sell the appraisal price, and the main new few designated real estate projects happen to be your favorite.
Li Yujia believes that the key to "exchanging the old for the new" is to stimulate the motivation of the owners of second-hand houses to "still replace the new", and the starting point and foothold of the policy is to truly meet the desire of the owners to upgrade their housing consumption, and to reduce the replacement cost, replacement cycle, and to be able to buy their favorite and preferential new houses. At the same time, if you can't sell the second-hand house, you will "have no responsibility to unsubscribe from the new house", which is very important, which can give enough safety cushion to the second-hand house owners who participate in the activity.
The threshold for participation in second-hand housing is high
The reporter found that although many cities have put forward the policy orientation of "exchanging the old for the new", they are still in the stage of policy exploration, and the overall effect is not obvious at present. For example, judging from the current policy details, many cities will have thresholds or requirements for second-hand housing listings participating in the "trade-in", especially those with state-owned assets platforms as the main body to acquire old houses.
Taking Zhengzhou as an example, the conditions to be met for the second-hand housing acquired in the pilot phase include, but are not limited to: the age of the house cannot exceed 15 years, if there is a mortgage to be paid off, and it must be located within the third ring road. In the pilot stage, the newly built commercial housing purchased should be the "existing house" that has obtained the record certificate of housing completion acceptance.
Zhengzhou Chengfa Anju acquisition of second-hand housing "trade-in" flow chart Source: Zhengzhou real estate transaction service platform
At present, in the Zhengzhou real estate transaction service platform system, more than 180 sets of "trade-in second-hand houses" have been registered and stored, with a total price of 290,000-3.18 million yuan, most of which are one-bedroom or two-bedroom, and most of the houses are less than 70 square meters. At present, there are 58 new projects in Zhengzhou participating in the "old for new", with an average price of 8,100-42,000 yuan/square meter.
Recently, the reporter interviewed a number of new projects in Zhengzhou that participated in the "trade-in" activity as a buyer and learned that there is no special restriction on the purchase of a new house through the "trade-in" method, and the houses for sale can be selected, and the payment method of the full payment or mortgage loan can be used.
Looking at Yangzhou, the city encourages and supports development enterprises to carry out "direct acquisition" type "trade-in" business, and has been piloting a series of measures since September last year. As of the end of February this year, more than 200 second-hand houses in Yangzhou have been directly acquired by real estate companies. According to the data released by Yangzhou, a real estate company that actively participated in the pilot project undertook a total of about 200 million yuan in second-hand housing acquisitions within 5 months, driving the turnover of new houses to nearly 500 million yuan.
Li Yujia suggested that in the early stage of "trade-in", developers with tight capital chains and willing to make profits can be selected to participate, and through "trade-in", developers can obtain the benefits of participating in activities that can effectively boost sales, so as to have a demonstration effect on other developers in the market.
The E-House Research Institute believes that the potential problems or contradictions of the current "trade-in" can be better solved in the follow-up reform. For example, from the perspective of evaluation, it can be carried out by means of joint appraisal by multiple appraisal companies, anchoring the listing price and actual transaction price of second-hand housing in the surrounding market, and multiple evaluations. For the listings included in the pilot scope, standards and division structures can be set up in the future, especially to study the reuse mode after the acquisition of different types of second-hand houses.
National Business Daily