news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

The picture shows a residential building in Chengdu. Photo courtesy of our newspaper’s archives

Our reporter Chen Xuebo and Lu Zhikun reported from Chengdu

On the afternoon of August 12, the Chengdu Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau issued the "Notice on Further Optimizing Housing Transaction-Related Policies" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), which relaxed the "first home" recognition standards in terms of withdrawal from guaranteed rental housing, recognition scope, housing listing status, and whether the loan has been paid off.

On August 13, a reporter from China Business News consulted the Chengdu Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau as a citizen and confirmed that after an individual's home is listed on a second-hand housing trading platform, it will receive an official verification code. With this verification code, the corresponding number of housing units can be confirmed and reduced. This policy was already implemented on the 13th.

The reporter learned from Centaline Property that the total number of new and second-hand housing transactions in Chengdu in the first half of this year reached 152,900 units, ranking first in the country in terms of overall transaction volume. Among them, 50,100 new homes were sold, ranking first in the country; 102,800 second-hand homes were sold, only 4,100 units behind the first place Shanghai.

The scope of number recognition is narrowed down to the district level

According to the Notice, for housing included in the affordable rental housing resource pool in order to obtain home purchase qualifications, if it has not been rented out or the lease contract has been terminated, one can voluntarily apply to withdraw from the affordable rental housing resource pool early and lift the listing and trading time limit.

At the same time, for new housing purchases within Chengdu, only the housing situation of the buyer in the district (city) or county where the intended housing is located will be checked. If the buyer has no housing, it will be deemed as the first house. If the buyer has a house in the district (city) or county where the intended housing is located and is listed for sale, the number of houses will be reduced accordingly. Commercial banks are supported to handle personal housing loan business according to the number of houses recognized by the customer.

In this way, buyers with a record of buying a house are more likely to be identified as buying their first house. The reporter contacted the Chengdu Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau by phone to confirm, and the staff explained that, for example, if a citizen has one house in Chenghua District and no house in Qingyang District, if he buys a house in Qingyang District at this time, he can be identified as buying his first house.

The number of houses that are "listed for sale" can also be reduced. A staff member of the Chengdu Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau explained that, for example, if a person owns one house in Chengdu and this house is listed for sale on a second-hand housing trading platform, he will receive an official verification code and the number of houses will be reduced by one. In this way, the next house he buys can also be considered as the first house.

In addition, the "Notice" also mentioned that for those who own two or more houses in Chengdu and have paid off the corresponding housing loans, financial institutions are supported to determine the down payment ratio and interest rate on their own.

According to the latest policy, buyers who were eligible to purchase second or third homes in the past will have the opportunity to purchase a home in Chengdu as their first home. According to relevant policies of Chengdu, the down payment ratio for the first home is only 15%, and the mainstream minimum interest rate is 3.35% (LPR-60BP); the down payment ratio for the second home needs to be increased to more than 25%, and the mainstream minimum interest rate is 3.65% (LPR-30BP); and loans cannot be obtained for more than three homes.

Yan Yuejin, deputy director of Shanghai E-House Real Estate Research Institute, pointed out that the summary of Chengdu's policies actually mentioned four angles to lower the first home purchase qualification, which has a positive effect on the residents' first home purchase qualification. Conversely, it also shows that there is still a trend of further relaxation in the housing purchase policies in various places in the second half of the year, which is also very important for us to understand the subsequent housing purchase policies of other cities.

The top 10 enterprises had a total sales of 70 billion yuan in the first seven months

On April 28 this year, Chengdu completely lifted its purchase restriction policy. Housing transactions across the city no longer require review of household registration, social security and other purchase conditions, and no longer limit the number of units purchased. On the same day, August 12, in addition to optimizing policies, Chengdu also issued the "Notice on Supporting the Withdrawal of Housing Provident Funds to Pay for House Purchases". From September 15, 2024, all housing provident fund payers who purchase newly built commercial housing within the administrative area of ​​Chengdu can apply to withdraw their own and their spouse's housing provident funds to pay for the purchase of houses.

With the support of multiple optimization policies, some real estate companies have performed well. According to data from the China Index Academy, among the top 30 real estate sales performance in Chengdu from January to July 2024, 7 real estate companies had sales of more than 5 billion yuan in Chengdu, namely China Resources Land, China Railway Construction Real Estate, Poly Development, Longfor Group, China Merchants Shekou, Chengdu Rail City and Huafa Group. The sales performance of the top 10 companies was about 73.4 billion yuan, accounting for more than 60% of the performance of the top 30 companies. Among the performance contributions of the top 10 companies, the 5+2 regions accounted for more than 60%, among which Tianfu New Area, Qingyang District and Jinjiang District ranked in the top three in performance contributions.

China Index Academy predicts that in the second half of 2024, the logic of enterprises to determine investment based on sales will be further strengthened, and investment actions will be more cautious and focused. It is expected that future products will enter a period of rapid iteration, and projects with product design advantages will further gain market pricing power and reconstruct the market price system based on this.

The real estate market optimization policies released by Chengdu will also help the local market recover. Yan Yuejin concluded that the Chengdu policy shows that in the second half of the year, local governments will continue to optimize housing purchase policies based on the "one city, one policy" orientation. The core point of Chengdu's policy is to relax the qualification of first-time home buyers, so that more home buyers can enjoy the purchase conditions and loan conditions of their first home.

(Editor: Lu Zhikun, Reviewer: Tong Haihua, Proofreader: Zhai Jun)