China Hasn't Eased Home Buying Limits, Yet

iFeng: 10余省市政策松动，我们又回到“刺激楼市拉动经济”了吗？

At present, local policies are relatively prudent. The main focus is on bail-outs for housing companies, alleviating corporate liquidity pressures, and reducing defaults on delivery . The “restrictions on purchases”, “restrictions on loans”, Core control policies such as mortgage rates are rarely involved.

In terms of policy intensity, local policies are still small adjustments based on city policies, and they have not broken the red line of "housing is for living in, not for speculating on."

iFeng: 多城楼市现“定向宽松”政策 尚未触及限购等关键层面

Zhang Hongwei admitted that overseas financial institutions have recently tightened financing due to some concerns about the market environment due to the suspension of construction and sales of domestic real estate companies. However, the domestic financing environment has not yet been significantly loosened, and it is mainly local governments that support it in delaying the payment of land transfer fees. It is estimated that there will be targeted easing measures in the future.

The key aspects of purchase restriction, loan restriction and sale restriction have not yet been touched

Regarding land price and tax reduction and exemption, some key provinces and cities issued relevant measures in time.

As early as February 4, the Chongqing Municipal Government's General Office has issued 20 policy measures. For small, medium and micro enterprises that have difficulty in production and operation, they can apply for deferred payment of social insurance premiums and reduce the housing accumulation fund deposit ratio. The measures will be implemented until 2020. June 30,

On February 11th, Shanghai issued a document stating that failure to pay the land price on time due to the impact of the epidemic can apply for an extension, which is not a breach of contract, excluding late fees and liquidated damages, and the land delivery time will be postponed accordingly.

On February 12, Zhejiang Province issued a support policy involving six major measures to ensure the use of land for construction projects for epidemic prevention and control, and stipulated in the validity period that it will be postponed for three months after the epidemic is resolved. At the same time, the Xi'an Municipal Bureau of Resource Planning also issued 10 measures, three of which are directly related to the property market: payment of land transfer payments in installments, permission to change the payment period of transfer payments, and implementation of a pre-registered real estate registration system.

"Daily Economic News" reporters sorted out and found that the relevant measures in many places are still oriented to the entire industry to support resumption of work and production. Some cities have concentratedly reflected land payments, tax reductions, and transaction processes. At present, only Wuxi has The real estate sector has launched the "directed easing" policy, with the greatest efforts.

Will more cities follow up in the future? Zhang Hongwei believes: "The" targeted easing "policy issued by multiple cities is mainly aimed at the land market by instalments and deferred payments, and the sales link is the reduction of taxes and exemptions and the first simplification. There is currently no 'purchase, loan, and sale restriction' There have been no substantial changes in these key levels. It is estimated that in the next cities that have inventory pressure and cities that have experienced sales pressure in the past three to five months, they will gradually introduce some measures to allow the market to recover as soon as possible."

The only thing restraining local governments is the central government. As soon as they allow for it, cities will rush to ease restrictions and capital will pour into real estate. I expect they'll hold the line for all but the worst-case economic scenarios. Lifting home buying restrictions is "the kitchen sink" because it will trap China in another multi-year cycle of damage control.