This newspaper comprehensively reported that the provident fund policy toolbox in many places is intensively "new".
Recently, many places have intensively optimized and adjusted the housing provident fund loan policy to better meet the housing needs of residents and promote housing consumption. It involves raising the upper limit of loans, reducing the proportion of down payments, implementing "first withdrawal and then lending", giving preferential treatment to special groups, and relaxing the restrictions on "business to business". According to incomplete statistics, at present, more than 70 cities have introduced relevant policies to better meet residents' housing needs and promote housing consumption.
So, what are the advantages of adjusting the provident fund policy in many places? Where is the "new"?
Adjust provident fund policies in many places
While the interest rate of personal housing and commercial loans continues to decline, many places have recently "relaxed" the provident fund loan policy. It is understood that this round of adjustment is mostly for special groups such as families with many children, flexible employment personnel, green buildings, "old and small" and other special fields, aiming to give greater play to the positive effect of the provident fund in ensuring housing demand.
Since March, Harbin, Heilongjiang, Yantai, Shandong, Ordos, Inner Mongolia and other places have introduced new policies for the provident fund, increasing the amount of provident fund loans to varying degrees. Among them, the maximum loan amount for a single worker in Harbin has been raised from 600,000 yuan to 800,000 yuan, and the maximum loan amount for dual workers has been increased from 800,000 yuan to 1 million yuan; Yantai has adjusted the upper limit of the loan amount from 600,000 yuan to 800,000 yuan; the upper limit of the loan limit for a single worker in Ordos has been raised from 500,000 yuan to 600,000 yuan, and the upper limit of the loan limit for dual workers has been raised from 800,000 yuan to 1 million yuan.
The Beijing Housing Provident Fund Management Center recently issued the "Notice on Optimizing the Approval Standards for the Loan Term of the Housing Provident Fund after the Renovation of Old Communities", extending the loan term of the old community provident fund for the completion of specific renovation projects, from "less than the remaining service life of the house minus 3 years" to "less than the remaining land use life minus 3 years". According to the relevant person in charge of the Beijing Housing Provident Fund Management Center, this policy will effectively solve the problem of short loan term due to the long service life of the house in the old community.
At the same time, Beijing and Guangzhou also introduced measures to support the development of green buildings in April, and the amount of provident fund loans for buyers who purchase green and low-carbon buildings has been increased.
For flexible employment groups, Suzhou has launched the "Happy Living in Suzhou City" deposit and loan product. Flexibly employed persons can enjoy the convenience of "flexible deposit and withdrawal at any time" when they contribute to the provident fund, and at the same time, they can also enjoy various policy subsidies of the housing provident fund. Ningbo has made it clear in the policy that flexibly employed persons who pay into the housing provident fund according to the regulations and have full civil capacity can apply for housing provident fund loans when purchasing, building, renovating or overhauling self-occupied houses within the administrative area of the city, and the loan conditions are the same as those paid by the unit.
In addition to raising the quota, many places have relaxed the restrictions on provident fund loans, implementing "first withdraw and then lend" and "both withdraw and loan". For example, Yibin, Sichuan Province has launched the policy of "first withdrawal and then loan", before employees apply for provident fund loans, they can first apply for the purchase of the same house and withdraw, and the remaining account balance after withdrawal will be calculated according to 30 times the balance of the deposit.
Chenzhou in Hunan, Fuzhou in Fujian, Tongliao in Inner Mongolia and other places have further optimized the policy of converting commercial loans into provident fund loans and relaxed the restrictions on "business to business".
In addition, the policies benefiting the people of provident fund loans in various regions also include optimizing the identification criteria for the number of housing units, reducing the down payment ratio, increasing the maximum loan amount of the provident fund, and increasing the number of provident fund loans.
Li Yujia, chief researcher of the Guangdong Housing Research Center, mentioned that the decline in the sales of commercial housing means that the number of houses purchased has decreased, but the provident fund is still being paid normally, the repayment is still the same, and the water level of the provident fund pool is rising, far from the 80% personal loan rate warning line, which has created conditions for increasing the amount. The provident fund has strong territorial attributes, high local autonomy, and low interest rates, and the characteristics of meeting the local rigid needs to improve are obvious, and it is a policy favored by local governments.
Where is the "new".
In recent years, real estate-related policies, including provident fund, have been continuously adjusted, what is the difference between this round of intensive adjustment of provident fund policy, and what are the benefits?
Yan Yuejin, research director of the E-House Research Institute, said that in this round of policy adjustments, most of the new policies belong to conventional provident fund support policies, and the "Happy Living in Suzhou City" provident fund deposit and loan product launched by Suzhou for flexible employment personnel is innovative and has reference significance for other cities.
According to the Suzhou Housing Provident Fund Management Center, the product allows flexible employees to enjoy the convenience of "flexible deposit and withdrawal at any time" when they pay the provident fund, and realize "zero deposit and zero withdrawal", and can apply for a provident fund loan after 6 months of purchasing the product for the first time, and can also enjoy policy subsidies. According to the relevant loan calculation formula, the first CPF loan amount is about 18 times the deposit amount. This means that flexible workers only need to deposit about $50,000 in principal to get a $1 million CPF loan.
"This opens a new model of productized payment of housing provident fund, further expands the coverage of the provident fund, so that new citizens and other groups can also enjoy the benefits of the provident fund. Yan Yuejin believes that this approach better supports reasonable housing consumption demand.
In addition, the policy guidance of raising the upper limit of provident fund loans for green buildings and encouraging home buyers to buy "good houses" is also worth paying attention to. Among them, for employees who apply for provident fund loans to purchase two-star and above green buildings, prefabricated buildings or ultra-low energy buildings, the maximum loan amount ranges from 100,000 yuan ~ 400,000 yuan, and the maximum loan can be 1.6 million yuan. For employees who apply for provident fund loans to purchase new green buildings or new prefabricated buildings, the maximum loan amount will be increased by 10%~20%, and the maximum loan amount of "one person" and "two or more people" can reach 840,000 yuan and 1.44 million yuan respectively.
In the view of Guo Yi, chief analyst of Heshuo Institution, the optimization and adjustment of this round of provident fund policy has brought benefits to buyers like Liu Jinsheng who just need and have just reformed, which is conducive to reducing their housing costs and thresholds, and boosting their confidence in buying homes.
"The new provident fund policy will not only enhance the heat of the property market, but also promote urban development and future population structure optimization. Guo Yi explained that, for example, the increase in loan limits for college students and young talents is well aligned with the talent introduction policies of second- and third-tier cities, and the preferential policies for families with many children also have a "synchronous effect" with the population policies in recent years.
Guo Yi also pointed out that after all, there is a limit on the loan amount of provident fund loans, especially in first- and second-tier cities, where the total housing payment is relatively high, and the provident fund cannot fully cover the loan needs. Therefore, it is recommended that the approval and lending cycle of provident fund loans be further shortened, so that more developers are willing to accept the combination of provident fund loans and commercial loans, so that more home-buying families can enjoy provident fund benefits.
Chen Wenjing, director of market research at the China Index Research Institute, said that optimizing the provident fund policy is one of the main means to support the development of the real estate market and promote the release of demand in the past two years. In the short term, all localities may continue to implement policies according to the actual situation of their own provident fund use, optimize the cities with provident fund-related policies, and continue to expand, optimize the identification standards for second homes, reduce the proportion of down payments, increase the maximum loan amount of the provident fund, and support the transfer of business to public are still important measures for the current adjustment of provident fund policies in various places. In addition, the down payment of the provident fund, the non-local loan of the provident fund, the auction of the provident fund law, and the increase in the number of provident fund loans are also the reference directions for optimizing the provident fund policy in various places.