Recently, many parts of the country have introduced policies to loosen the property market.
On March 23, Harbin cancelled the regional “restriction” policy that had been in place for nearly 4 years; Qingdao also recently adjusted the sale restriction policy in the outer suburbs.
According to incomplete statistics, more than 60 cities across the country have introduced policies to loosen the property market. Under the premise of “housing, not speculating,” the regulation policies of the property market in various regions are becoming more and more flexible.
In this round of “relaxing” property market policies, Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province, is at the forefront of the country.
On March 1, Zhengzhou City issued the “Notice on Promoting the Virtuous Cycle and Healthy Development of the Real Estate Industry”, which contains 19 new policies on real estate, which are called 19 new policies for the Zhengzhou property market.
Relaxation of purchase restrictions, cancellation of “household subscription and loan subscription”, and implementation of monetized resettlement for shantytown reforms… Zhengzhou has thus become the first city in the country to fully relax purchase restrictions and loan restrictions this year. , was thrust into the spotlight.
Zhengzhou fired the “first shot”
“In terms of the current national property market policy, Zhengzhou’s new policy is relatively strong”, Beijing Normal University Song Xiangqing, vice president of the Institute of Government Management, told China News Weekly that Zhengzhou has not only loosened restrictions on purchases and loans, but more importantly, it has given the market more room for imagination.
At the specific policy level, Zhengzhou took the lead in relaxing the purchase restriction policy, stipulating that if children and close relatives work and live in Zhengzhou, the elderly are encouraged to come to Zhengzhou to seek relatives for the elderly and allow them to rely on their families. When purchasing a new house, it is also clarified that for families who own a house and have paid off the corresponding purchase loan, to apply for a loan again to purchase ordinary commercial housing in order to improve their living conditions, banking financial institutions implement the first-home loan policy.
This means that, with a family as a unit, the city account can buy the third set, the single can buy the second set, and the foreign account can also buy the second set. This is actually abolition of the purchase restriction; the cancellation of “recognizing a house and subscribing for a loan” for improved demand relaxes the standard of loan restriction. 
Zhengdong New District, Zhengzhou, Henan. Picture in this article China News Weekly
The 19 new regulations on the property market in Zhengzhou also clarified that the minimum ratio of land auction deposits has been lowered to 20% of the listing price %, the land transfer fee can be paid in installments within 1 year after the transaction. At the same time, it is also announced that it will focus on 3 years to vigorously promote the monetized resettlement to ensure that the resettlement of the masses will be completed in 2024.
Public opinion pointed out that lowering the security deposit and paying the land transfer fee in installments can further reduce the cost of land acquisition for developers, reduce the pressure on funds, and boost the confidence of developers; It is beneficial to the destocking of the commercial housing market.
Song Xiangqing told China News Weekly that after the introduction of the new policy on the property market in Zhengzhou, the impact has already appeared.
According to his observation, the transaction volume of both new and second-hand houses has increased compared with before. Song Xiangqing said, “The core area and the central area have a greater response, and the transaction volume has increased rapidly, while the changes in the suburban or outer suburban counties are relatively high. It is not very obvious.”
According to data from many institutions, after the introduction of the new policy in Zhengzhou, the market has indeed become active, and transactions have also performed positively. Two weeks after the release, a total of 2,819 new houses were sold in Zhengzhou, an increase of 4.3% compared with the previous two weeks; a total of 1,795 second-hand houses in Zhengzhou were sold, an increase of 10.9% compared with the previous two weeks.
It is worth noting that Zhengzhou is another city in the country besides Beijing that strictly implements high differential tax. That is, for non-full five-only residences, the differential tax is levied at 20% of the difference. Under the high differential tax, Zhengzhou The second-hand housing market has not been very active.However, shortly after the Zhengzhou New Deal was released, the second-hand housing tax policy was adjusted. Zhengdong New District, Economic Development Zone, and Airport Area The new policy has been implemented. When individuals transfer their houses, if they cannot provide the complete original value of the house and proof of reasonable expenses, the individual income tax shall be levied at 1% of the verified tax price.
This It is equivalent to the cancellation of the 20% difference tax that has been implemented for 7 years, which is naturally a major benefit for the second-hand housing market. Many local real estate agents said that after the introduction of the New Deal in March, the real estate market has turned hot, and the transaction volume has risen, but Housing prices are fairly stable.
“rising by 70%”, “opening for listing” and “heating up”, CCTV Finance reported on March 21 that the property market in Zhengzhou is newPolitical Times say so.
According to reports, 20 days after the release of the New Deal, the property market in Zhengzhou has recovered significantly. In terms of new houses, the number of people viewing houses has increased significantly after the release of the New Deal, especially in the core hot areas.
In terms of second-hand housing, data from CCTV Finance shows that compared with the weekly average in December last year, the weekly average viewing volume in the first two weeks of March increased by 38%, while the transaction growth rate was 38%. More obvious, an increase of 70%.
In Song Xiangqing’s view, the New Deal for Zhengzhou’s property market is still in its infancy. He believes that the next 1-3 months will be an important observation window.
“The ideal state is that the transaction volume has increased, everyone’s emotions have been released, and their expectations for economic development have increased, but the price of commercial housing has not risen sharply or skyrocketed. “Song Xiangqing said.
Behind the “relaxation” of the property market
In fact, before the introduction of the new property market policy, the property market in Zhengzhou continued to be weak, and housing prices have fallen for four consecutive years.
The property market in Zhengzhou developed rapidly from July to September 2016, but it only lasted for 3 months and began to decline. High-pressure regulation such as suburban purchase restrictions, strict loan restrictions, and high first set interest rates have kept the Zhengzhou property market in a weak state since the second half of 2017.
In the past year, due to floods, epidemics and the real estate industry itself, more than 40 real estate projects in Zhengzhou have announced delays in delivery, and many real estate companies have In trouble, Jianye Real Estate, a local real estate company in Henan, even sent a letter of help to the government.
According to data from the E-House Research Institute, the number of second-hand residential transactions in Zhengzhou in January 2021 was 2,228, a month-on-month decrease of 36% and a year-on-year decrease of 44%; Monitoring data shows that in January 2022, 6,686 new houses were sold in Zhengzhou, down 30.7% from December. 
Zhengzhou city scenery aerial photography.
External analysis, this is likely to be an important reason for the introduction of the new policy in the Zhengzhou property market.
Song Xiangqing told China News Weekly that after experiencing floods and major epidemics last year, the property market in Zhengzhou has entered a freezing point, and the entire property market is filled with pessimism and continues to ferment. He said that if this sentiment in the real estate sector spreads to other industries, it will be unfavorable for the development of the entire economy, for enhancing confidence and improving expectations for economic development.
From the perspective of supply and demand, Zhengzhou’s property market is oversupplied, and there is a lot of pressure on destocking.
According to data, since 2016, the transaction area of residential land in Zhengzhou (including the counties and cities under its jurisdiction) has reached 220 million square meters, and the sales area of commercial housing has reached 170 million square meters in the same period. The land stock is large, and the destocking pressure is great. In recent years, Zhengzhou has promoted the transformation of urban villages on a large scale, and the stock of this part is also relatively prominent.
Song Xiangqing said that before the introduction of the new property market policy, the phenomenon of oversupply in Zhengzhou continued, and many real estate sales were difficult, although there were some promotions, discounts, and price reduction policies, However, due to multiple factors, the demand for the entire property market has not been released, and many property sales are not very smooth.
Hu Jinghui, former vice president of I Love Wojia Group and chief economist of Jinghui Think Tank, told China News Weekly that the supply of new houses in Zhengzhou has been relatively large in recent years, although there are also Many industries and people have moved in, but the market demand is sluggish. If some adjustments and relaxations are not made, the pressure on the real estate industry may be relatively large.
Song Xiangqing believes that after the introduction of the New Deal, demand has been released, especially the flexible liberalization of credit policies, which has provided more room for demand growth. In this case, a large number of idle properties can be digested, the supply and demand relationship of the property market will be more balanced, and this positive aspect of the property market will be further amplified.
At the Zhengzhou Municipal Party Committee Plenary Session and Municipal Party Committee Economic Work Conference held on February 15, Acting Mayor He Xiong made an analysis and judgment on Zhengzhou’s real estate industry: “In the past, Zhengzhou’s annual The net inflow of population is 400,000, and the housing demand is very strong. Only college students and migrant workers can almost digest the stock of commercial housing in Zhengzhou.”
Implementation of the new property market policy , there is no doubt that the above requirements can be met to a certain extentrelease.
This year’s National People’s Congress, the State Council’s government work report mentioned the property market, while emphasizing adherence to the positioning of “houses are for living, not for speculation”, adding The expression “support the commercial housing market to better meet the reasonable housing needs of home buyers”.
This has led many cities to actively try to adjust their property market regulation policies. The analysis believes that Zhengzhou, with high inventory, oversupply, and huge downward pressure on the economy, is in the forefront of the country and has introduced a relatively strong loose property market policy, which is also reasonable.
The situation in Harbin is similar to that in Zhengzhou. Since the second half of 2021, the property market in Harbin has experienced a significant downward trend. With the repeated impact of several epidemics, the market transaction volume has been bottoming out, and home buyers have maintained a wait-and-see attitude. Therefore, like Zhengzhou, it also took the lead in introducing policies to stabilize the property market.
The relevant person in charge of the Harbin Housing and Urban-rural Development Bureau said that the cancellation of the regional “restriction” policy that has been implemented for nearly 4 years is mainly aimed at facilitating public transactions and stimulating market activity. , is also conducive to promoting the release of improvement and rigid demand.
Change is happening
In addition to Zhengzhou and Harbin, the property market regulation policies in many places are also becoming more and more liberalized, the difference is only the degree of “relaxation” different.
According to incomplete statistics, since the beginning of this year, more than 60 cities across the country have loosened property market policies, involving relaxation of purchase and loan restrictions, reduction of down payment ratios, reduction of statistical interest rates for housing loans, Relaxation of restrictions on sales and prices, etc.
Among them, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other cities have lowered their mortgage interest rates; Harbin, Qingdao, Nanchang, Ningbo and other cities have relaxed their purchase and loan restrictions ; Chongqing, Fuzhou, Wenzhou, Ganzhou, Foshan, Ningbo, Nanning, Beihai, Fangchenggang, Zhumadian, Tangshan, Heze and other cities have lower down payment ratios.
On March 19, Guangxi Fangchenggang, Beihai, and Nanning announced the reduction of down payment. Nanning’s second-home commercial loan was reduced to 30%, and Fangchenggang and Beihai’s first-time down payment was reduced to 20%. %. The down payment reduction in three cities at the same time shows the urgency of the local action to loosen the property market.
At the central level, many ministries and commissions also expressed their positions intensively to release positive signals.