House sales and viewings in China's major cities have increased significantly during the just-concluded National Day holiday, following a wave of real estate policy adjustments introduced at the end of September to revitalize the property market.
The Chinese capital Beijing on Sept 30 announced to ease restrictions on home-buying rules, including lowering the threshold on non-locals to buy real estate in the downtown area.
Non-Beijing residents are now allowed to purchase homes inside the city's fifth ring road if they have a record of paying social insurance or individual income tax in the city for at least three years -- down from five years as was previously required. And the record requirement for buying a house outside the fifth ring road is shortened to two years.
The new policies have lifted the housing purchase restrictions in Tongzhou District, where the Beijing Municipal Administrative Center is located, to allow the district's home-buying rules to comply with the city's unified property market policy.
Real estate brokers said the inquiries have increased notably after the announcement, as more people are now eligible to buy homes in the capital.
"After Tongzhou District eased restrictions, we can feel the urgency of some customers to buy a house is really strong. From Oct 1 to 5, our store took 71 groups of potential buyers to view houses, received 282 groups of customers for inquiries, and signed five orders. The growth rate was significantly beyond our expectations," said Zhang Xue, manager of a real estate agency store.
"From Oct 1 to 5, we received 182 online inquiries and led 39 groups of clients to view houses on site, a sharp increase from the previous month," said Liu Saihang, another property broker.
From Oct 1 to 3, on-site viewings for used homes in Beijing jumped by 104.1 percent, according to a report on the website of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.
From Oct 1 to 6, visits to major on-sale real estate projects in the city rose by 68 percent year on year, and subscriptions increased by 1.6 times.
Authorities in China's southern economic hub Shenzhen also rolled out new policies on Sept 29, including reducing the down payment ratio, shortening the period of VAT exemption, abolishing transfer limits, and optimizing the purchase restrictions in different districts.
During the week-long National Day holiday from Oct 1 to 7, the real estate sales centers across the city were crowded with potential buyers, while real estate agencies were also busy receiving viewers for resold houses.
"Since the new policies were introduced, the daily number of visits and transactions at this project has been four to five times higher than in August and September," said Zang Zhoucheng, a property sales manager.
The new policies have eliminated the requirement for a record of paying individual tax or social insurance for purchasing a home outside the designated area in Shenzhen. The move is believed by industry insiders to have unleashed a considerable portion of housing demand.
"Since the requirement for social insurance payment was canceled, more than 30 percent of the buyers have been non-local residents, resulting in a relatively large growth in trading volume," said Liu Mingbo, manager of a real estate company.
According to statistics from the Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of Guangdong, in the first four days after Shenzhen issued the new property policies, or from Sept 30 to Oct 3, 879 new house subscription agreements were signed in the city, and the average daily subscription volume surged by 124.9 percent over that in September.
In terms of second-hand homes, more than 20,000 visits were handled by real estate agencies in Shenzhen from Oct 1 to 6, with the average daily viewings up by 47 percent from September and by 21 percent over the same period last year, according to Hua Hong, secretary general of Shenzhen Real Estate Intermediary Association.
Guangzhou, the provincial capital of Guangdong, announced to lift restrictions on buying a home on Sept 29. Both local and non-local residents, families and single individuals, can now buy as many properties as they can afford in the city after the new policy took effect on Sept 30.
The house sales managers in Guangzhou noted that the implementation of new policies has given a further boost to the housing market during the busy season. They said that the customers used to take a long time to consider whether to make a deal, but during the National Day holiday, buyers decided a lot faster.
September and October are generally considered the prime selling periods for the real estate market in China, commonly known as "Golden September and Silver October."
"Three or four transactions were made on average every day in the past few days, which means this year's Golden September and Silver October have created an upsurge under the policy support and the economic recovery," said Ni Hengwen, a real estate project manager.
Data from the Ministry of Home and Urban-Rural Development indicated that visits to some real estates in Guangzhou exceeded 150 groups per day during the National Day holiday, an increase of 200 percent compared with regular days.
A second-hand housing agency manager in Tianhe District said that during the busy holiday, the amount of inquiries tripled than usual, and the viewings increased by two times. From Oct 1 to 6, the store sold eight sets of used homes.
"This year's National Day holiday completely exceeded our expectations, because we were too busy," said Wu Xiaoxiao, head of a real estate agency.
Shanghai issued a seven-measure circular for the property market on Sept 29, including adjusting housing purchase restrictions and optimizing housing credit and tax policies, leading to a notable increase in real estate viewings and resold houses deals.
"In September, we received about 400 groups of visitors every week. But in the National Day holiday, we already had 1,000 groups visitors, more than doubled. We have sold more than 150 sets of houses during the holiday," said Zhang Ting, a real estate sales manager.
The increase in visits and transactions is mainly attributed to the cut of down payment ratio and the adjustment of the social insurance payment record from three years to one year for non-Shanghai household registration families, which has not only lowered the threshold of home purchase, but also allowed more qualified buyers to flood the market.
The introduction of new policies has also driven the recovery of second-hand house sales in Shanghai.
"We are working overtime in mornings and evenings these days. The turnover is up by 20 percent, and the volume of inquiries has increased by about 30 to 50 percent. We have a strong confidence in the prospects of the industry," said Wang Zheng, a real estate agency store manager in Shanghai.
New policies boost house sales in major cities
