The same policy has been introduced in Lishui District of Nanjing. So far, there are already two districts in Nanjing that have released the qualification for purchasing houses for foreign household registration.
On April 1 1 day, Suzhou also adjusted the policy of restricting purchases and sales. Among them, the second-hand housing purchase restriction period was changed from 5 years to 3 years. When non-registered households apply to buy the first home in Suzhou, Kunshan and Taicang, the social security (individual tax) is changed from 24 consecutive months in 3 years to 24 cumulative months.
Under the idea of "one city, one policy", several cities have recently adjusted their property market policies. Among them, the "five-limit" policy represented by purchase restriction and sales restriction has also been adjusted to some extent, reflecting the support of the policy to the demand side.
The "five limits" of real estate refer to purchase restriction, loan restriction, sale restriction, price restriction and business restriction. This is the most stringent policy of purchasing houses in China at present, and the superposition of "five limits" is also considered as an important symbol of the last round of property market regulation. Analysts believe that the adjustment of the "five-limit" policy reflects the subtle change of regulatory policies from suppression to support. But at the same time, in order to prevent the market from overheating, the policy "red line" still exists.
Strong second-tier cities
The adjustment of property market policies in Nanjing and Suzhou is the epitome of recent property market environment optimization. According to incomplete statistics, nearly 70 cities have issued a new policy to stabilize the property market in 2022. Since April alone, nearly 10 cities have introduced policies to stabilize the real estate market with different strengths.
From the policy content, it is mainly manifested in reducing the minimum down payment ratio, lowering the mortgage interest rate, increasing the amount of provident fund loans, increasing the introduction of talents, and issuing housing subsidies.
Among them, there are precedents for the adjustment of the policy of restricting purchases and sales. At the end of March, Fuzhou issued a policy that non-five-district registered families (including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) can buy a set of ordinary houses below 144 square meters in Fuzhou five districts without providing medical insurance or tax payment certificates for nearly two years or two months or settling down.
In terms of sales restriction policy, Harbin cancelled the sales restriction policy in the main city for nearly four years at the end of March, thus becoming the first provincial capital city to cancel the sales restriction policy.
Prior to this, Jining City, Shandong Province cancelled the restrictions on the "restricted sale" of second-hand houses; Jimo District, Qingdao has also changed the period of restricting the sale of new houses from five years of licensing to five years of online signing, and the second-hand houses from five years to two years. On April 1 day, Quzhou issued a notice to optimize the policy of restricting purchases and sales, becoming the first city in China to cancel the restrictions on purchases and sales at the same time this year.
"The significance of adjusting the policy of restricting purchases and sales in Nanjing and Suzhou is that it means that the restrictive policy adjustment of the property market has been extended to strong second-tier cities." Yan Yuejin, research director of the think tank center of Yiju Research Institute, told 2 1 Century Business Herald that Zhengzhou, Harbin, Fuzhou and other cities that have made similar adjustments before are mainly second-tier or weak second-tier cities.
In addition to the adjustment of the policy of restricting purchases and sales, the policy of restricting loans has also been relaxed with the adjustment of credit policies. Recently, many cities have lowered the minimum down payment ratio, increased the amount of provident fund loans, and Zhengzhou, Lanzhou and other cities have cancelled the "mortgage loan", which is considered to be a rational adjustment to the loan restriction policy.
In terms of price limit, many real estate developers told 2 1 Century Business Herald that since the beginning of this year, hot cities have generally relaxed their control over the pre-sale price of new houses, but the price increase has not been reflected in the transaction level because the purchasing power has not fully recovered.
So far, in the "five-limit" policy, all other four-limit policies have been adjusted to some extent except the "business limit".
Yan Yuejin said that the superposition of "five limits" is the most important representative policy in this round of property market regulation since 20 17, and it also constitutes the most restrictive housing purchase policy in China. The adjustment of the "five limits" also means that the restrictions on the demand side are conditionally relaxed.
The policy "red line" is still there.
The shift of regulatory policy to support demand has long been a clue. The Central Economic Work Conference held in February last year pointed out that it is necessary to support the commercial housing market and better meet the reasonable housing needs of buyers. Since then, many regulatory authorities have made similar statements, and local governments have successively introduced relevant favorable policies.
In 2022, supporting reasonable demand has become one of the main themes of local property market policies. Among them, in addition to rigid demand, improved demand is also welcoming. Recently, the measures that have attracted much attention, such as encouraging the elderly to vote for the elderly, canceling the "recognizing the house and the loan", and relaxing the purchase restriction for families with two children and three children, are all aimed at supporting the improved demand.
Yan Yuejin pointed out that China is still in the stage of rapid urban development, and the housing demand is relatively strong. However, from the perspective of demand stratification, some big cities have entered the stage of improved demand. The satisfaction of these needs is of great significance to stabilizing the property market.
Judging from the market trend, due to various reasons, it will take some time for these policies to take effect.
/kloc-In March, Zhengzhou issued the Notice on Promoting the Healthy Development of the Real Estate Industry, which introduced measures to stabilize the property market from five aspects: supporting reasonable housing demand, improving housing market supply, increasing credit financing support, promoting the construction and renovation of resettlement houses, and optimizing the real estate market environment. Due to its strong support, Zhengzhou was once called "the first city to lower the threshold of improved demand loans".
Chen Wenjing, director of market research of Index Division of Central Reference Institute, pointed out that after the introduction of the policy, the number of new houses in Zhengzhou increased, especially the core quality projects improved significantly. According to preliminary statistics, the volume of weekly transactions increased in March. In the case of a low base in February, the average transaction area in March increased by about 50% compared with that in February, but compared with the level in the middle of last year, the transaction scale still has a certain distance.
In addition, according to the 100-city price index of China's real estate index system, in March 2022, the price of new residential buildings in Zhengzhou decreased by 0.27% month-on-month, and the price of second-hand residential buildings increased by 0.06% month-on-month. "It will take time for this policy to be effective." Chen Wenjing said.
Chen Wenjing pointed out that adjusting the "five-limit" policy and introducing relevant measures to optimize the property market environment will be the main direction of property market regulation in the future. However, the trend of the property market is influenced by multiple factors. In the current situation, the pace of market recovery may not be too fast.
Despite this, in the face of the excessive rebound of the market that may be triggered by policy adjustment, there have also been vigilant voices. On April 1 1 day, the Economic Daily article pointed out that the notice issued by the Ministry of Education recently on doing a good job in enrolling students in ordinary primary and secondary schools made it clear that where educational resources are relatively balanced, it is encouraged to gradually implement single-school dicing; Where educational resources are not balanced enough, actively and steadily promote multi-school scribing. Accordingly, some market participants believe that the school district housing prices will usher in a new round of rise.
The article said that this view is worthy of vigilance. It is not an expedient measure to curb the chaos in school districts, but it will take a long time to prevent the wind of speculating in school districts from coming back.
Yan Yuejin believes that this also reflects that the property market policy still has a "red line". Signals from key areas such as school districts and high-priced places may become alarms that trigger "red lines". In the context of the gradual release of reasonable demand and the recovery of the market, the attempt to break through the "red line" in the name of encouraging demand will still be limited.