This is the Dongchu Yujing of the Hubei Huangshi Baojiao Building Project taken on January 24, 2024. (Source: Xinhua News Agency)
Within one day, Hangzhou and Xi'an, two regional central cities in eastern and northwest China, announced the complete cancellation of property market restrictions. According to incomplete statistics, at present, more than 50 cities across the country have relaxed the purchase restriction policy, of which 23 cities have completely canceled the purchase limit; In addition to the four first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, only Hainan Province and Tianjin City remain in the provinces or cities in China that still retain housing purchase restrictions. This seems to indicate that the property market purchase restriction, as one of the landmark policies of real estate regulation and control that has been implemented for more than ten years, is gradually withdrawing from the historical stage.
Two cities announced the lifting of housing purchase restrictions in one day
On May 9, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, announced the optimization and adjustment of real estate market regulation measures, proposing seven measures, including the comprehensive cancellation of housing purchase restrictions, the optimization of notary lottery sales, the strengthening of housing credit support, and the optimization of the points settlement policy. Previously, Hangzhou has innovatively identified the "first suite" in the scope of districts and counties (cities), and this time the scope has been extended to all districts, counties (cities) in the city, such as having a house in Xihu District and no house in Shangcheng District, and buying a house in Shangcheng District and applying for a mortgage can be identified as the first house.
On the afternoon of the same day, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province issued the "Notice on Further Promoting the Steady and Healthy Development of the Real Estate Market", which also clearly pointed out that the housing purchase restrictions will be completely cancelled, and residents will no longer review the qualifications for purchasing new commercial housing and second-hand housing in the city.
This is the building of the Media Village in Hangzhou Asian Games Village taken on December 29, 2021 (drone photo). On the same day, the completion ceremony of Hangzhou Asian Games Village was held. (Source: Xinhua News Agency)
As a restrictive policy on the demand side, the withdrawal of purchase restrictions will directly benefit the release of housing demand. Gao Yuansheng, executive deputy general manager of the East China Region of the China Index Research Institute, pointed out that taking Hangzhou as an example, the full liberalization of purchase restrictions and other supporting policies will be conducive to the release of local improved housing demand. Moreover, Hangzhou proposed this time that after buying a house, you can apply to settle down, which will absorb more new demand in the province or abroad.
According to Yu Xiaofen, dean of the China Institute of Housing and Real Estate at Zhejiang University of Technology, the impact of the new policy is not limited to Hangzhou. As the capital city of Zhejiang Province and a city with national influence, Hangzhou's property market is stable, which plays a role as a guide for the stability of the property market in Zhejiang Province.
After the withdrawal of purchase restrictions, Xi'an is also expected to further boost property market transactions. In recent years, the property market in Xi'an has performed relatively strongly. Official data showed that new home prices in Xi'an rose 4.8% year-on-year in March, ranking first among 70 large and medium-sized cities. However, according to the monitoring data of the Zhuge Data Research Center, in April 2024, the transaction volume of new homes in Xi'an fell by more than 30%, and the inventory removal cycle was also extended compared with the previous month.
Yan Yuejin, research director of the E-House Research Institute, said that Xi'an, Chengdu and other cities with relatively good property market performance have successively canceled purchase restrictions, which means that some high-energy cities are also continuing to adjust and optimize their regulatory policies, and it is expected that other cities will follow up in the future, and market sentiment will be further boosted, which will also help accelerate the pace of recovery of the real estate market.
On May 4, 2024, the sales office of a new real estate outside the North Fifth Ring Road in Beijing is receiving visitors. (Source: Xinhua News Agency)
Housing policies in hotspot cities continue to be optimized
The Politburo meeting of the CPC Central Committee on April 30 set the tone for real estate policy. It is pointed out that it is necessary to combine the new changes in the supply and demand relationship of the real estate market and the new expectations of the people for high-quality housing, and coordinate the study of policies and measures to digest the stock of real estate and optimize the incremental housing. Since then, Beijing, Tianjin, Shenzhen and other places have loosened the purchase restriction policy, and before that, Changsha and Chengdu have also completely canceled the purchase restrictions.
On April 18, Changsha optimized the real estate regulation and control policy, no longer reviewed the qualifications of home buyers, and at the same time, the city's "trade-in" to buy a new house, in accordance with the "mortgage recognisance" policy, enjoy the first home down payment ratio and mortgage interest rate concessions.
On April 28, Chengdu optimized the real estate policy, which proposed that from April 29, the city's housing transactions will no longer review the qualifications for house purchase, and at the same time, the city's commercial housing projects will no longer implement notarization lottery selection, and enterprises will sell independently.
On April 30, Beijing optimized the housing purchase restriction policy again after 13 years, and the core content is to add a set of housing purchase indicators outside the city's "fifth ring road" on the basis of the current purchase restriction policy.
On April 30, Tianjin optimized the real estate regulation and control policy, canceled the purchase restriction on the purchase of new houses of more than 120 square meters by residents with household registration in Tianjin, and at the same time, the number of housing units identified by district was implemented, and the number of units identified by multi-child families and elderly families was also reduced by 1. In addition, the threshold for buying houses in Beijing and Hebei in Tianjin will be relaxed.
On May 6, Shenzhen sub-districts optimized the housing purchase restriction policy, and the requirements for individual income tax and social insurance payment in Yantian District, Bao'an District (excluding Xin'an Street and Xixiang Street), Longgang District and other districts were adjusted from 3 years to 1 year.
According to the monitoring data of the China Index Research Institute, as of now, in addition to Hainan Province, Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen are still relatively strict in core cities, and some core areas in Guangzhou, Tianjin and other cities still have purchase restriction policies.
"It is expected that these cities will continue to optimize the purchase restriction policy in the future, especially in the second-tier cities, the pace of adjustment of the purchase restriction policy may be accelerated, and at the same time, the core cities will reduce the down payment ratio, mortgage interest rates and transaction taxes and other policies are also expected to be adjusted." The high school student said.
"If the policy can be implemented well, it is expected that the national real estate market will usher in a wave of destocking, which will greatly boost market sentiment and help promote a faster, better and more stable recovery of the real estate market." Yan Yuejin said.
Street view of the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Area taken on March 1, 2024. (Source: Xinhua News Agency)
China's property market is coming to an end
The purchase restriction began in Beijing in 2010 and has been in place for about 14 years now. When housing prices rise too fast and the property market is overheated, it will be taken out of the regulatory toolbox by various places; When the relationship between supply and demand changes, the purchase restriction policy will be withdrawn on a large scale. According to statistics, at the most, more than 100 cities across the country implemented housing purchase restriction policies.
In 2024, in order to adapt to the new supply and demand relationship, the purchase restriction policy will be loosened and gradually implemented, including the optimization of the purchase restriction policy in first- and second-tier cities. According to incomplete statistics from the Zhuge Data Research Center, as of May 9, more than 50 cities across the country have relaxed the purchase restriction policy. Among them, 23 cities, including Chengdu, Hangzhou, Foshan, Dongguan, Xiamen, Nanjing, and Suzhou, have completely canceled purchase restrictions.
Zhang Dawei, chief analyst of Centaline Real Estate, said that there are only single digits left in cities or provinces that still maintain purchase restrictions, and these places are expected to have relaxed policies recently. With the major changes in the relationship between real estate supply and demand, he believes that the property market is no longer full of speculative demand, so the lifting of housing purchase restrictions is in line with the law and expectations.
Wang Xiaochang, chief analyst of Zhuge Data Research Center, also said that at present, whether it is new or second-hand housing, the supply is relatively large, and the relaxation of the purchase restriction policy in the future is the general trend, and first-tier cities have the possibility of further loosening the purchase restrictions.
From the perspective of market trends, Zhang Dawei believes that the real estate adjustment that has lasted for more than two years has gradually approached the bottom, and with the correction of housing prices, cost-effective housing has appeared in cities of different energy levels, and the market transaction volume has stabilized. The possibility of a phased stabilization of housing prices in the first and second-tier cities in the short term has increased significantly.
So, as a landmark policy of real estate regulation in mainland China, is the purchase restriction that has been implemented for more than ten years coming to an end? At present, the relaxation of purchase restrictions is the general trend, but the purchase restrictions will not disappear completely. Continued fine-tuning and dynamic adjustment will be a major trend.
(Source: CCTV News, Chinanews.com, Beijing News, Economic Information Daily)