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Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition

The first affordable rental housing and surrounding supporting projects in Beibei District, Chongqing are progressing in an orderly manner. Currently, the main structure construction has been completed and has entered the interior decoration stage. The picture shows the construction site of the project.
Photo by Qin Tingfu (People's Vision)

By Xu Jun (Xinhua News Agency)

Recently, the State Council issued the "Five-Year Action Plan for Deeply Implementing the People-Oriented New Urbanization Strategy", proposing a new round of urbanization actions for rural migrant population. It mentioned that the household registration system reform should be further deepened, and restrictions on settlement should be relaxed except for some super-large cities. At the same time, many new first-tier cities and second-tier cities in China announced the relaxation of settlement restrictions. In Chongqing, Chengdu, Dongguan, Wuhan and other places, citizens can apply for settlement by purchasing a house. In Qingdao and Shenyang and other places, new citizens can apply for settlement by renting a house.

At present, what is the effect of relaxing restrictions on settling in many places? How do people view the "relaxed" settlement policy?

More than 20 cities across the country support home purchase and settlement

For many new citizens, buying a house and settling down are important signs of their integration into a city.

After graduating from university, Peng Xuedong from Taiyuan, Shanxi, bought a property in Nanjing, Jiangsu and moved his household registration to Nanjing. "I bought the house in 2016. At that time, Nanjing supported the policy of settling in through purchasing a house, and the settlement process was quite smooth. But later, the local government began to implement the point-based settlement system, and the household registration could only be transferred in through talent settlement or point-based settlement." Peng Xuedong said, "I heard that Nanjing has recently relaxed the settlement restrictions and supports residents with legal properties to apply for settlement. This is a good thing for new citizens and young people, and they can better enjoy the city's public resources."

Nanjing is not the only city that has lowered the threshold for settling in. Since last year, in addition to the four first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Tianjin, new first-tier cities such as Chongqing, Chengdu, Dongguan, Wuhan and Hangzhou, among the megacities with a permanent population of more than 10 million, have introduced relevant policies to support residents to settle in by purchasing houses; megacities with a permanent population of more than 5 million, such as Xi'an, Zhengzhou, Jinan, Hefei, Shenyang, Qingdao and Suzhou, have also successively introduced policies to support settlement by purchasing houses; in cities with a permanent population of no more than 3 million, restrictions on settlement have almost been completely lifted.

Specifically, there are some differences in the policies of relaxing restrictions on settlement in various places, but most of them point to supporting residents to apply for settlement through purchasing houses. For example, Wuhan proposed to optimize the settlement procedures for purchasing houses. Families who purchase newly built commercial housing in Wuhan and do not meet the conditions for applying for a house ownership certificate (real estate certificate) can apply for early settlement procedures for purchasing houses in the jurisdiction with the registered "Commercial Housing Sales Contract" and payment vouchers and other legal and stable residence certification materials, as well as personal certificate application commitments. While implementing the existing points-based settlement policy, Hangzhou has increased the proportion of points for self-owned property. From July this year, the standard score of the "self-purchased property in the urban area of ​​the city and actual residence" indicator in the Hangzhou Residence Permit Points Management Index System has been increased from 30 points to 80 points.

Some cities have also relaxed restrictions on settlement to allow people to apply for settlement by renting a house. Qingdao proposed that people who live in rented houses in urban areas and have registered their lease contracts and residence can apply for themselves and their immediate relatives to settle in the urban immediate relatives' family households or the urban community collective households where the rented houses are located during the period of house rental. Shenyang also made it clear that non-local residents who rent houses in urban areas of Shenyang can settle in Shenyang for themselves and their immediate relatives. Foshan's new settlement policy proposes that people who have been employed in the local area for 3 years can apply for settlement by renting a house.

Some residents said they have benefited from the new settlement policy.

Sun Yudong, a 23-year-old barista, recently successfully applied for a Qingdao hukou by renting a house. "For new citizens, having a hukou makes it easier to enjoy public services such as medical treatment. I have just graduated from university and my current financial ability is not enough to support the purchase of a house. The policy of renting a house to settle down can help me realize my wish to settle down with less financial pressure, laying a foundation for future development," he said.

The relaxation of household registration policy boosts property market transactions

Judging from the new settlement policies recently introduced in many places, the groups that buy houses and rent houses are the main beneficiaries of the relaxation of settlement restrictions. For some home buyers, "buying a house" and "settling in" meet their dual needs at the same time.

"Compared with my hometown in the north, I prefer the climate and living environment of southern cities, so I decided to stay in Dongguan after graduation. The policy on purchasing a house and settling in has been relaxed, and coupled with a series of new measures recently introduced by the local government to lower the threshold for purchasing a house, the policy environment is relatively friendly whether it is buying a house or settling in, which can make new citizens like me have a stronger sense of belonging to this city." Chen Jingwen said.

Li Yujia, chief researcher of the Housing Policy Research Center of Guangdong Provincial Urban Planning Institute, believes that relaxing restrictions on purchasing and renting houses is an important measure for cities to attract talents. "In the past, cities that implemented the policy of settling in by purchasing houses were often third- and fourth-tier cities, with the purpose of attracting population return. However, recently, not only second-tier hot cities but also some new first-tier cities have implemented the policy of settling in by purchasing and renting houses. These are megacities with a net inflow of population. The purpose of this policy is to attract young people and new citizens to settle in by purchasing and renting houses, so as to release consumption potential and build a new housing consumption model of renting first and buying later." Li Yujia said.

Industry insiders analyzed that judging from the timing of some cities’ policy announcements to relax restrictions on settlement, “lowering the threshold for settlement” and “boosting real estate consumption” are not unrelated. For example, Hefei issued a policy in the second half of last year, announcing the complete cancellation of purchase and sales restrictions. However, the local real estate market did not perform as expected after the new policy was introduced. In May this year, Hefei issued a new policy to relax restrictions on settlement, announcing that if the ownership of a local commercial residential property is obtained in a legal manner, the person and his spouse, children, and parents can apply to the public security agency where the property is located to transfer their household registration. In June, Suzhou issued the “Notice on Several Policy Measures to Further Promote the Stable and Healthy Development of the Real Estate Market in Our City”, proposing that non-Suzhou residents who purchase or own legally owned housing and actually live in Suzhou can apply for settlement. According to monitoring data from relevant agencies, both the new and second-hand housing markets in Suzhou rebounded slightly in June.

"Recently, cities such as Nanjing, Suzhou, and Hangzhou have relaxed their settlement policies. From a practical point of view, many places are close to the policy of 'settlement by purchasing a house', which has boosted the property market to a certain extent. Other new first-tier cities and hot second-tier cities can also refer to this type of new policy, organically combining the relaxation of settlement restrictions and the boosting of the housing market, to inject impetus into promoting property market transactions." Yan Yuejin, research director of the E-House Research Institute, said.

Better promote population settlement in cities

In the view of industry insiders, many places have "loosened" their household registration policies by relaxing restrictions on buying and renting houses. This is one of the measures to adapt to the changing consumption concepts of young people, and it is also an important way for various places to attract talent.

Li Yujia believes that many young people in big cities are no longer obsessed with saving money to buy houses, but are turning to long-term rental, which has weakened the city's attractiveness to talents to a certain extent. "Lowering the threshold for settlement caters to the new trend of young people willing to rent houses and postpone buying houses, allowing them to settle down more smoothly, especially in second-tier cities, which can form a strong siphon effect." He said.

"Relaxing the settlement restrictions is an important measure to facilitate the free flow of talents and promote the construction of a unified national human resources market," said Wu Shuai, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Personnel Science. "At present, the 'mobility growth' of talents, that is, the growth achieved through the regional flow of talents, has replaced the 'natural growth' to a certain extent. For a long time, the household registration issue has been a factor restricting the free flow of some people. Now that many places have relaxed the restrictions on settlement, it will help more young and middle-aged talents who have been working in cities for a long time but have not been able to settle down to take root in the city and integrate into the city, and it will also help some cities attract potential talents."

At present, as the urbanization rate of permanent residents continues to increase, the reform of the household registration system will continue to advance, which means that more people will be able to settle in cities with more convenient conditions and channels in the future. According to the Five-Year Action Plan for Deeply Implementing the People-Oriented New Urbanization Strategy, China will further deepen the reform of the household registration system. Fully implement the requirements for canceling the restrictions on settlement in cities with a permanent urban population of less than 3 million, and comprehensively relax the settlement conditions for cities with a permanent urban population of 3 million to 5 million. Improve the point-based settlement policy for super-large and megacities with a permanent urban population of more than 5 million, and encourage the cancellation of annual settlement quota restrictions.

Qiu Baoli, director of the Public Security Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, said at a regular briefing on the State Council's policies held by the State Council Information Office recently: "Specifically, for cities with a permanent urban population of less than 3 million, the employment or residence period is in principle half a year, and no additional restrictions such as purchasing houses, investment and taxation shall be imposed. For cities with a permanent urban population of 3 million to 5 million, some of the current employment or residence requirements are still relatively high, and the threshold should be further lowered. For super-large and megacities with a permanent urban population of more than 5 million, the point-based settlement policy should be further adjusted and improved, and cities with conditions should explore the abolition of the annual quota limit for point-based settlement."

Wu Shuai believes that accelerating the reform of the household registration system is the first step to attract talents and facilitate residents to settle in cities. "In the long run, local governments should also strive to build a more efficient public service system, provide a more friendly employment and entrepreneurship ecosystem, and further enhance the sense of belonging and identity of new citizens, so as to better attract and retain talents." (Liao Ruiling Wang Yixiao)

People's Daily Overseas Edition (Page 11, August 7, 2024)