Hangzhou of Zhejiang in the east, Chengdu of Sichuan in the southwest, and many other Chinese cities have witnessed significant uptick in property sales after a series of new policies were rolled out to stimulate the housing market.
Hangzhou, the provincial capital of Zhejiang, announced on Oct 9 a set of five measures to boost the property market.
These measures include lowering the minimum down payment ratio for commercial housing mortgages, raising the housing provident fund loan limits, removing price caps on new homes built on newly leased state land, enhancing location-specific purchase support and improving real estate financing coordination.
Following the announcement of these new policies, real estate agencies across the city have experienced a marked increase in inquiries and visits from potential buyers.
"The response to the new policies has been positive, with our clients volume nearly tripling than before. We're also receiving many visitors from nearby county-level cities, and buyers are making purchases more decisively now," said Zhang Jie, sales manager at a local real estate agency.
Real estate agents noted that the new measures, particularly the removal of price caps on newly released land, have sparked renewed enthusiasm among developers. The increased housing provident fund loan limits have also lowered the barrier for consumers looking to buy property.
"The maximum housing provident fund loan amount for families has been raised from one million yuan (about 141,519 U.S. dollars) to 1.3 million yuan. This is advantageous with regarding house purchasing thresholds and overall costs for home buyers. We've observed a 75 percent increase in the average daily number of new contracts signed for pre-owned home buying these days compared with that in September," said Shangguan Jian, director of the Hangzhou branch of the Beike Research Institute, a housing market think-tank.
In a similar vein, recent real estate initiatives in Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan, have sparked a revival in the housing market, with real estate agencies filled by prospective home buyers.
"We have our own provident fund, and the interest rates for combined loans are relatively low. It's more cost-effective as compared with before," said a prospective home buyer, referring to the combined loan option, which allows individuals eligible for commercial housing loans to simultaneously apply for a housing provident fund loan to reduce home-buying costs.
According to the Chengdu Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau, the housing market showed positive changes during the just-concluded National Day holiday from October 1 to 7. On average, 15 representative real estate developers each received an average of 28.7 groups of prospective buyers daily, a 10 percent increase compared with the Labor Day holiday from May 1 to 5. Typical real estate agencies also reported an average of 6,682 resale home viewings per day, up 2.8 percent from the Labor Day holiday.
The city plans to continue rolling out favorable policies to support the healthy development of the housing market.
"We will further implement the financial support policies issued by the central government and lower residents' home-buying costs, and we'll continue introducing policies to support home buying and promote commercial housing sales," said Lyu Shaoqing, director of the market department at the Chengdu Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau.
Incentive policies drive housing sales up across China
