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text | reporter of "chinese entrepreneur" li yanyan

editor｜yao yun

header image source｜visual china

after shanghai, guangzhou, and shenzhen successively introduced relevant policies to stabilize the property market, beijing's policy finally came into effect.

on the evening of september 30, beijing released new policies for the property market, including lowering existing mortgage interest rates, lowering the minimum down payment ratio for personal housing loans, increasing support for housing provident fund loans, reducing the number of years for non-beijing households to pay social security or personal tax when purchasing a house, adjusting tongzhou policies and measures have been introduced in terms of district housing purchase restrictions, canceling standards for ordinary and non-ordinary housing, and accelerating the construction of a new model of real estate development.

this time beijing has introduced a total of 8 new policies, which will be implemented from october 1, 2024. what attracts the most attention is the adjustment to the purchase restriction policy.

according to the new regulations, the number of consecutive years for non-beijing households purchasing a house in beijing to pay social security or personal income tax has been changed from the past 5 years to 3 years for purchases within the fifth ring road and 2 years for purchases outside the fifth ring road, which is what the industry summarizes as the "fifth ring road". change 5 inside to 3” and change 5 outside the fifth ring road to 2. house purchase for high-level and urgently needed talents that meet the needs of beijing's economic and social development is clearly defined as "continuous payment for one year or more before the date of purchase."

so far, all four first-tier cities in china have introduced policies to stabilize the property market and have lowered purchase restriction thresholds to varying degrees. judging from the content, the overall policy output is in line with expectations and in line with the current situation of the property market in various cities. "guangzhou is the most thorough. all purchase restrictions have been lifted, and outsiders can buy whatever they want. shenzhen is very sincere. outsiders in core areas only need one year of social security, and non-core areas can buy whatever they want. sales restrictions have also been lifted." an industry insider described it.

many industry insiders said that in order to help the real estate market stop falling and gradually stabilize as soon as possible, beijing’s new property market policies can be said to be “unprecedented in intensity.”at the same time, these policies and measures will also play an effective role in supporting reasonable housing demand, boosting market confidence, reasonably guiding expectations, and stimulating market vitality. some experts analyze that beijing’s current round of policy adjustments has basically been put in place.

"as a benchmark for national property market regulation, beijing's real estate market has been relatively stable in the past few years. amid changes in the market supply and demand structure, this policy adjustment is conducive to market stability. it is expected that beijing's second-hand housing transaction volume will remain at around 13,000 units in october , the new housing market is also expected to stabilize," said zhang dawei, chief analyst of centaline real estate.

policies continue to be optimized and purchase restriction thresholds are lowered

beijing’s “purchase restriction” policy is the most stringent in the country.

before this adjustment, non-beijing home buyers in most areas still had to meet the five-year continuous tax or social security requirements in beijing. buying a house in tongzhou district also requires meeting additional restrictions. on april 30 this year, beijing conditionally relaxed purchase restrictions outside the fifth ring road, but the overall purchase restriction threshold is still high. now, with the introduction of the new policy, adjustments to the purchase restriction policy have attracted much attention.

according to chen wenjing, director of policy research at the zhongzhi research institute,beijing has made differentiated optimization of purchase restriction policies this time. for example, the social security period requirement for house purchase within the fifth ring road in beijing has been reduced to 3 years, and outside the fifth ring road to 2 years. for high-level and urgently needed talents to purchase houses, the social security period has been reduced to 1 year, which significantly increases support for talents to purchase houses. intensity.

in addition, the "special treatment" of tongzhou district's purchase restriction policy is cancelled, consistent with beijing's purchase restriction policy; adult singles with beijing citizenship living together with minor children will also be subject to the housing purchase restriction policy as a beijing resident family. "on the whole, beijing's purchase restriction optimization is relatively strong this time, and it is expected to have a relatively positive impact on market activity." chen wenjing said.

in addition to lowering the threshold for purchase restrictions, beijing has also increased credit support, lowered existing mortgage interest rates, and lowered the down payment ratio for the first home to a unified national lower limit. %, and the minimum 30% outside the fifth ring road has been uniformly reduced to 20%, which is greater than that in shanghai. it will significantly lower the threshold for home buyers and promote the release of rigid and improved housing demand.

in the new policy, beijing also increased its housing loan support for beijing-based families with two or more children and increased the provident fund loan limit.

since the beginning of this year, beijing has increased provident fund loan support for the purchase of green buildings, prefabricated buildings and the purchase of qualified old communities. this time, it will further support the purchase of houses by beijing-based families with multiple children, increasing the provident fund loan limit by 400,000. it will also reduce the cost of home purchase for families with multiple children, which is an important manifestation of supporting the demand for improved housing.

beijing’s new property market policy will also promptly cancel the standards for ordinary and non-general residences in accordance with national work arrangements. in the process of purchasing a house, there are certain differences in the taxes and fees paid for ordinary houses and non-general houses. previously, on september 20, beijing had made it clear that the standards for ordinary and non-ordinary residences would be canceled in a timely manner. this new policy proposed that the standards for ordinary and non-ordinary residences would be canceled in a timely manner, which is also a further clarification of the previous policy.

chen wenjing said that canceling the standard for common houses and non-common houses will reduce the transaction taxes and fees (mainly value-added tax) for non-common houses, thereby reducing the cost of home purchase and driving the release of demand for improved housing; at the same time, canceling the standard for identifying common houses will also help better match product types to enterprises and focus on creating high-quality products that meet market demand.

in addition, beijing's optimization policy also involves accelerating the construction of a new real estate development model, improving the "market + guarantee" housing supply system, promptly introducing measures to support the construction of "good houses", accelerating the transformation of urban villages, and giving full play to the role of the "white list" to meet the needs of in terms of reasonable financing needs of real estate companies, we will continue to prevent and resolve real estate risks and stabilize market expectations.

some experts believe that as the market adjusts in the future, relevant measures are expected to be refined and implemented at an accelerated pace.

on the same day as the "new deal" was launched, the supply side was also making efforts.

on september 30, the beijing municipal planning and natural resources commission website released the "fourth round of list of commercial residential land to be supply in 2024", involving a total of 9 parcels of land, with a land area of ​​approximately 39 hectares and a construction scale of approximately 960,000 square meters, of which there are 4 projects in chaoyang district, 3 projects in fengtai district, and 1 project each in dongcheng district and economic and technological development zone. the items in the list will be supplied before october 31.

photography: wu ying

the person in charge of the municipal planning and natural resources commission said in his speech that beijing will actively respond to new changes in supply and demand in the real estate market and further increase land supply in areas with outstanding market demand and good infrastructure and public services, especially rail transit. the use of land around the station will promote the concentration of urban resource elements towards the station, drive regional development, and promote "station-city integration."

first-tier cities are fully following up, and the property market is expected to accelerate its bottoming

zhang dawei described beijing’s current round of policy relaxation as “small steps, fast steps, and gradual easing.”

from the initial implementation of "recognize a house but not a loan" to the end of last year, "the down payment ratio for the first home in beijing was reduced to 30%", from the relaxation of the "double limit" in tongzhou in february this year to the "cancellation of the restriction that divorced families are not allowed to purchase a house within three years" in march... the latest one was the implementation of the “517” policy on june 25 this year. according to statistics from the centaline real estate research institute, in the past year since september 2023, beijing has issued a total of 10 property market easing policies.

from the perspective of market demand, zhang dawei believes that this policy is basically in line with market expectations.

statistics from the centaline real estate research institute show that as of september 29, 12,331 second-hand housing units in beijing were signed online that month, and it is expected to be around 13,000 units for the whole month, close to the low in the past seven months. "the overall price changes in the new home market are large, and most projects are under great sales pressure. in this case, the market needs to introduce policies to stabilize expectations, so this loosening of purchase restrictions will help the market stop falling and stabilize in october." zhang dawei concluded.

the ministry of housing and urban-rural development held a party group meeting on september 29, emphasizing the need to guide various localities to effectively implement existing policies and intensify efforts to promote the implementation of incremental policies to achieve results. it is necessary to respond to the concerns of the masses and support cities, especially first-tier cities, in making good use of their autonomy in regulating the real estate market and adjusting housing purchase restriction policies according to city-specific policies. up to now, all first-tier cities have introduced new policies for the property market and actively implemented the spirit of the 9.26 political bureau meeting of the cpc central committee.

after the central bank and other regulatory authorities released relevant financial policies, shanghai took the lead in revising the scope of purchase restrictions in the outer ring, changing social security from 3 to 1, value-added tax from 5 to 2, and abolished restrictions on non-ordinary residences. guangzhou has completely lifted purchase restrictions. social security in core areas of shenzhen has been "replaced from 3 to 1", and there is no limit in non-core areas. the down payment ratio has also been reduced, and the value-added tax has also been changed from 5 years to 2 years. on the evening of the 30th, beijing’s new policy was released to the expectation of all parties.

in zhang dawei’s view, beijing’s policies are relatively cautious, and this purchase restriction policy is also the last to be introduced among first-tier cities in the country. compared with shanghai and shenzhen, there is still room for expansion in the scope of adjustments. "in particular, there has been no change in value-added tax, and the main period of purchase restrictions is also higher than in other cities. it is only one year in the suburbs of shanghai and two years outside the fifth ring road in beijing. of course, this is also determined by the actual situation of the beijing market."

looking back, beijing, as the city with the most stable real estate market and the strongest policies in the country, has effectively suppressed the irrational rise in the market by adopting regulatory policies since 2017. "however, some overly strict policies and measures have inevitably hurt part of the real demand for home purchase and self-occupation." zhang dawei said. now, under the influence of many parties in this round of easing cycle, the short-term impact of the policy has already appeared.

according to the centaline real estate research institute, as of september 30, the centaline second-hand housing quotation index has rebounded slightly by 2 to 3 percentage points. the recovery of the secondary managers' index, which reflects intermediary confidence, is even more obvious. last week (week 39) it jumped by an average of 12 percentage points. on the side of real estate companies, high-premium land plots have recently been released in the land markets in shanghai and guangzhou, and many real estate companies have appeared to compete for land plots. market confidence has recovered.

property market policies are continuing to be loose, bringing more vitality to the property market that is undergoing deep adjustment. in chen wenjing's view, the centralized implementation of policies in first-tier cities will help to exert the superimposed effect of policies. overall, it will play a more positive role in stabilizing market expectations, boosting market confidence, and accelerating the bottoming of the property market.

many industry insiders said that in the short term, first-tier city policies are basically in place.from the perspective of policy trends, taking beijing as an example, restrictive policies in the past when the real estate market was overheating have been gradually withdrawn. however, as the capital, beijing has its own particularities, and it is unlikely to fully liberalize purchase restrictions.

as the real estate supply and demand situation changes, beijing's purchase restriction policy is gradually fulfilling its historical mission. after years of governance and supervision, the real estate industry has also transformed from high turnover and high debt to a focus on products and services, returning to its manufacturing attributes. chen wenjing speculated that improving market supply and demand and stabilizing the market may be an important focus of policy in the future.

for example, “the purchase and storage of new unsold houses by local state-owned enterprises is the main depuration method promoted by the government. however, there are currently many stuck points, such as low purchase price, mismatch between the apartment type of the subject property and the building, and high capital costs. "in her view, the introduction of targeted supporting policies for these specific stuck points in the future will also help the real estate market to "stop falling and stabilize".