Real Estate Restrictions Coming Back

The January credit surge hit the real estate market and cities are already tightening policy in response.

iFeng: 楼市地方调控收紧：一城一策加码 坚持房住不炒
Local Control of Real Estate Market Tightens: One City, One Policy, One Increase, Insisting on Housing For Living and Not For Speculating

A post on the official website of Suzhou Municipal People's Government has highlighted the tightening trend of property market regulation.

In this 900-word "Supplementary Opinions of the Municipal Government on Further Promoting the Sustainable, Stable and Healthy Development of the City's Real Estate Market" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), the sale of new houses in all areas of Suzhou's parks and some key areas of high-tech zones will be restricted for three years. In addition, the park is globally owned.Second-hand housingAre included in the scope of sales restrictions; At the same time, the "opinions" also made adjustments to the land transfer quotation rules.

Although the restricted areas in the "opinions" do not include other districts and counties in Suzhou, there is no doubt that the introduction of the Suzhou property market regulation policy is an effort to implement the "housing will not be fired", "land price will be stabilized, house price will be stabilized, and expectations will be stabilized".

Suzhou is not just a case. According to statistics from Centaline Real Estate Research Center, in April, ministries and local governments took more than 60 regulatory measures against real estate, up 300% from the previous month, with a significant increase in regulatory frequency.

In the previous March, 65 of the 70 large and medium-sized cities saw their prices rise month on month.

As of May 10, 45 cities had sold more than 10 billion yuan of land during the year. Hangzhou, Suzhou and Wuhan are hot spots for land transactions. As a result, the combination of regulation and control boxing has come one after another.

On May 10, Zou Lan, deputy director of the financial market department of the People's Bank of China, said at a media briefing that the orientation of real estate regulation and real estate financial policies has not changed. The central bank will continue to strictly follow the orientation of "houses are for living, not for speculation" and the objectives of "stabilizing land prices, housing prices and expectations" and adhere to the continuity and stability of real estate financial policies.

Local Control Tightens

Local property market regulation has begun to show a tightening trend.

Hefei, Beijing, Changsha, Xi 'an, Dandong and other cities with large market fluctuations have introduced tightening policies such as lowering the land ceiling price, granting loans to state-managed provident funds "both for housing and for credit", suspending deed tax concessions for second homes, starting the "first-level response to capital liquidity risk prevention and control" for housing provident funds, and limiting purchase and sales.

Take Changsha as an example. In the Notice on Adjusting the Deed Tax Policy for the Second Housing Transaction Link issued by the Hunan Provincial Department of Finance, the Hunan Provincial Tax Bureau of the State Administration of Taxation and the Hunan Provincial Housing and Construction Department, it is stipulated that the preferential deed tax rate for the second improved family housing will be suspended within Changsha, i.e. the deed tax will be levied at 4% on the purchase of the second improved family housing by individuals, and will be officially implemented from April 22.

Chengdu, Dalian, Dongguan, Nanning, Hefei, Huangshan and other places have further standardized the housing accumulation fund withdrawal policy.

For example, Xi 'an will suspend the allocation of provident funds for purchases outside Xi 'an (including Xixian New District), while Shijiazhuang will suspend the allocation of housing provident funds throughout the city.RemoteLoan.

At the same time, in Shenzhen, Harbin, Gansu, Hefei, Hangzhou and other places, the real estate market chaos, brokerage agencies, housing enterprises are doing special rectification of non-standard behavior.

In April's transactions, Kerri data showed that the area of newly-built commercial residential buildings in 40 typical cities decreased 4% month on month and increased 1% year on year.

Among them, the turnover area of first-tier cities decreased 16% month on month, up 39% year on year. The turnover area of second-tier cities fell 3% month on month and 2% year on year. Third-and fourth-tier cities saw their turnover area drop by 1% month on month, up 2% year on year.

"Judging from the policy expectation that the local policies will continue to diverge in the second and third quarters, the local control methods will be controlled in both ways, and the easing of monetary and credit will slow down in the future, it is expected that the' warming up' of the real estate market in the second quarter will fluctuate and repeat, and the pattern of urban differentiation will probably continue for a longer period of time." Kerri Research Center believes.

Insist on staying in the house without fire

However, corresponding to the tightening of property market regulation, the local policy of settling down is being relaxed.

For example, Hangzhou has stipulated that full-time college graduates and above who work in Hangzhou and pay social security can settle down directly.

Guangzhou has abolished the limit on the number of years of social security coverage for postgraduate and doctoral students, and only needs to have a record of insurance coverage in the units currently introduced in Guangzhou. Undergraduate students can go into their homes for six consecutive months of social security coverage.

In Baoding, Suzhou, Hohhot and other cities, various talent policies have been issued, involving the relevant contents of housing subsidies.

"relaxing residence does not mean relaxing control over real estate. No matter how the household registration system is changed,' houses are for living, not for speculation' this position must be adhered to and cannot be shaken. On May 6, Chen Yajun, Director of the Development Strategy and Planning Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, responded at a press conference on the establishment and improvement of the urban-rural integration development system and policy system.

Similarly, Professor Cai Jiming, director of the Tsinghua University Political Economy Research Center, wrote that relaxing the residence conditions does not mean relaxing the regulation of real estate. On the contrary, only by strengthening the regulation of real estate and keeping the housing price at a reasonable level can the housing threshold for migrant population, especially those from agriculture, to settle in cities be lowered.

In addition, he believes that relaxing the conditions for city settlement does not mean giving up the policy of city-based settlement. Mega-cities should adjust their population structure and distribution by optimizing the policy of integral settlement.

"No room for speculation" has been repeatedly stressed. At the meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on April 19, it has been proposed that the policy keynote of "stability first, one city, one policy" in 2019 will not change: on the one hand, the central government will adhere to the residential attribute of housing, keep a close eye on the financial risks of real estate, provide classified guidance and steadily push forward.Real estate taxThe general direction of legislation will remain unchanged. On the other hand, all localities, in combination with the current operation of the real estate market, actively implement the main responsibility, and control policies are mainly stable, with one city and one policy to prevent the property market from going up and down.

A few days ago, the Ministry of Housing and Construction carried out a special investigation into the real estate market operation in the first quarter and gave early warning to cities with large fluctuations in house prices and land prices in accordance with the requirements of monthly analysis, quarterly evaluation and annual assessment determined by the scheme for steadily implementing the long-term mechanism for real estate.

One city, one policy also extends to the end of the land. The Ministry of Natural Resources has issued a notice requiring the formulation and implementation of this year's residential land classification control targets according to the digestion cycle of commercial housing inventory.

The China Insurance Regulatory Commission said on its official website that it would continue to curb the real estate bubble and control the excessive growth of the leverage ratio of residents.

The various signals released have already shown that the core of the regulation is still to live and not to fry in the next stage. The policy tone of "stability first, one city, one policy" will not change.