Within one day, Hangzhou and Xi’an lifted housing purchase restrictions one after another
The housing purchase restriction order is coming to an end
Experts: It is expected that the country will usher in a wave of relaxation in May
Red Star Capital Bureau reported on May 9 that on the same day, two new first-tier cities announced the complete cancellation of purchase restrictions.
First, in the morning, Hangzhou announced that it would no longer review the qualifications for housing purchases within the city; non-Hangzhou registered residents who have obtained legal property rights can apply for settlement; then in the afternoon, Xi’an also officially announced that it will completely cancel purchase restrictions and optimize the notarization and lottery measures.
Red Star Capital Bureau found that currently, in the provinces or cities that still retain housing purchase restrictions across the country, except for the four first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, only Hainan Province and Tianjin City are still in a state of partially liberalizing home purchase restrictions.
Industry experts believe that at present, almost all provincial capital cities across the country have canceled purchase restriction policies, which means that the purchase restriction policies that have been implemented for many years in various places have been officially removed from the policy toolbox, and it also means that the idea of ”market belongs to the market, and guarantees belong to guarantees” is further implemented.
Yan Yuejin, research director of E-House Research Institute, told Red Star Capital Bureau that it is expected that May will usher in a wave of relaxation that is rare in the country. Compared with the simple “policy relaxation” thinking in the past, the current policy features are to open up the stock and incremental markets, open up the land and housing markets, open up the real estate and household registration policies, open up the short-term stimulus and medium and long-term planning policies, and open up the four areas of people, housing, land, and money. Open up the field.
Hangzhou
Restart “house purchase and settlement” and propose “identification of first home by district”
Red Star Capital Bureau noticed that in the policy issued by Hangzhou this time, it not only completely canceled housing purchase restrictions, but also simultaneously relaxed restrictions on housing purchase and settlement.
The Office of the Leading Group for the Stable and Healthy Development of the Real Estate Market in Hangzhou issued the “Notice on Optimizing and Adjusting Real Estate Market Regulation Policies” (hereinafter referred to as the “Notice”). It is clear that housing purchase restrictions will be completely cancelled, and housing purchase qualifications will no longer be reviewed within the scope of Hangzhou.
The “Notice” also mentioned that people who have obtained legal property rights in Hangzhou and are not registered in this city can apply for settlement. This also means that Hangzhou has restarted the “house purchase and settlement” policy.
In addition, in this round of policies, Hangzhou has also implemented the “district-based identification of first-time home buyers”, that is, as long as a home buyer purchases a home for the first time in a certain urban area, it can be regarded as the first home and enjoy first-time home loan interest rates.
The New Deal also gave the green light to home buyers who “sell old and buy new” in the same urban area. For example, if you own a second-hand house in Xihu District and plan to replace it with a second-hand house in Xihu District, as long as you go through the procedures for listing the second-hand house for sale, even if it has not been sold, the house you buy again can be regarded as the first house.
This time Hangzhou has made it clear that it will optimize the supply of residential land. For areas with a large housing supply and slow decontamination, optimize the land supply model and promote a balance between supply and demand. “This is also the first local optimization version in the country based on this policy. It also means that some urban areas in high inventory areas will subsequently reduce land supply, suspend land supply, or revitalize existing and idle land.” Yiju Yan Yuejin, research director of the institute, told Red Star Capital Bureau.
He believes that Hangzhou’s current policy package should be policies with strong relaxation this year, good market feedback, and good boosting effects.
He pointed out that Hangzhou has many policy innovations. For example, Hangzhou is the first city in the country to clearly optimize its land supply policy based on the “decomposition cycle”. It is the first city in the country to propose that “the listing of second-hand houses will qualify for the first house”, and it is one of the largest cities in the country. The cities that have long proposed “you can settle down after buying a house” are also the cities where large cities across the country have very clearly and comprehensively lifted purchase restrictions. “Such innovations can inspire the market a lot and have a very good demonstration effect.”
Xi’an
For the first time, “rigorous needs first” were eliminated from the lottery.
At the same time, Xi’an also officially announced the cancellation of purchase restrictions on the same day.
Red Star Capital Bureau noted that the last time Xi’an optimized its property market policy was in September last year. At that time, it was proposed that purchase restrictions be lifted in areas outside the second ring road of the city. We will also fully implement “transfer with deposit” and implement preferential tax refund policies for housing exchange. Purchasing a house in an area where purchase restrictions have been lifted requires registration and lottery.
In the new round of policies announced that day, when commercial housing projects are sold, if the ratio of the number of registered households to the number of housing units is less than 1.5:1, notarization and lottery will no longer be implemented. Housing with a building area greater than 144 square meters will no longer implement “priority for urgent needs” when selecting housing in the lottery. The time for announcing the lottery list, lottery results, and house selection results for lottery sales projects has been shortened from 3 days to 1 day.
Compared with Hangzhou’s “cancellation of notarized lottery sales requirements,” Xi’an’s current lottery regulations are more detailed. In Xi’an’s current round of policies, “prioritizing urgent needs” was eliminated from the lottery for the first time.
“This policy is very detailed. In fact, it is not about abolishing some policies across the board, but it does take into account that such houses are related to improvement needs.” Yan Yuejin pointed out that this is the change in the focus of the previous and current policies. “The focus of some subsequent local policies must be grasped. That is, in the past, more attention was paid to rigid needs. Now some policy optimizations must start from focusing on the demand for improved housing, and actively promote related work to ensure that policy optimization matches market demand.
Industry observation
Tianjin is the only new first-tier city that has not been canceled.
Policies in various places are more focused on “innovation”
Since April this year, various regions have ushered in another wave of intensive real estate market loosening following September 2023. From April to now, among the new first-tier cities, Changsha, Chengdu, Hangzhou, and Xi’an have successively lifted purchase restrictions. Red Star Capital Bureau noted that among the current 15 new first-tier cities, only Tianjin still maintains purchase restriction measures.
Tianjin’s latest policy adjustment was on April 30, which proposed that Tianjin’s registered residents cancel purchase restrictions on newly built commercial housing with an area of more than 120 square meters in the six districts of the city. In September last year, Tianjin’s housing purchase restriction area was adjusted to six districts in the city.
According to monitoring data from the China Index Research Institute, after Hangzhou and Xi’an relaxed purchase restrictions on May 9, except for the first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou, which still have stricter house purchase reviews, only Tianjin, Hainan and other places are left in the country. The core area still has a purchase restriction policy.
Industry insiders believe that the recent cancellations in Xi’an and Chengdu mean that some high-energy cities are also continuing to adjust and optimize their policies. This also shows that subsequent market sentiment will be further boosted, which will also help to further accelerate the pace of recovery in the real estate market.
First-tier cities in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen have also been releasing signals of relaxation this year. Guangzhou, for example, was the first first-tier city to relax purchase restrictions on large apartments. In January this year, Guangzhou proposed that within the purchase restriction area, the purchase of houses with a construction area of 120 square meters (exclusive) or more will not be included in the purchase restriction scope, and at the same time, “rent one to buy one, and hang one to buy one” are allowed. At the same time, Guangzhou has become the first first-tier city to divide the scope of purchase restrictions by area, opening a channel for people who do not have improved household registration in the city to buy housing.
Shenzhen has relaxed peripheral purchase restrictions. Innovate “zoning” to optimize purchase restrictions, take the lead in adjusting standards for general housing, and shorten the social security period for non-deep households. Since August 30, 2023, Shenzhen has issued a total of 4 real estate policies to support the entry of rigid and improving demand into the market.
As the city with the most stable real estate market and the strongest policies in the country, Beijing also relaxed purchase restrictions outside the Fifth Ring Road in April this year.
“May will usher in a wave of relaxation that is rare in the country.” Yan Yuejin said that the relaxation will involve home purchase policies, first-home recognition standard policies, second-hand house sales policies, lottery policies, settlement policies, high-quality housing policies, construction sites and Promulgate trading policies, etc.
“Innovation” is the keynote of current property market policies in various places. Yan Yuejin told Red Star Capital Bureau that compared with the past simple “policy relaxation” thinking, the current policy features are to open up the existing and incremental markets, open up the land and housing markets, open up real estate and household registration policies, open up short-term stimulus and open up medium and long-term planning policies. The four areas of people, housing, land, and money have been opened up. Many openings will help truly promote the circulation and healthy development of the real estate market.
Zhang Dawei, chief analyst of Centaline Real Estate, believes that Beijing and Shanghai have adjusted purchase restrictions in some areas, and Guangzhou has relaxed purchase restrictions the most among first-tier cities, canceling purchase restrictions in many urban areas and reducing the number of social security years. Overall, including first-tier cities, loosening purchase restrictions has become a major trend.
Chengdu Commercial Daily-Red Star News reporter Wang Tian comprehensive daily economic news
(Chengdu Business Daily)