(Economic Observation) Officials set the six key points of China's property market regulation in the second half of the year
China News Service, Beijing, July 28 (Pang Wuji, Wang Xiwei) After experiencing a recovery after the epidemic, in recent months, the pace of transactions in the property market in many places in China has slowed down, and the real estate market has cooled.
Experts believe that the further increase in regulation and supervision of the real estate market is the main reason for this change.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development recently held a press conference to invite experts to interpret the work related to accelerating the development of affordable rental housing and further regulating the real estate market.
Many experts pointed out that since the establishment of a long-term real estate mechanism in 2018, China has achieved remarkable results in promoting the steady and healthy development of the real estate market.
According to statistics, in 2020, the year-on-year growth rates of newly-built commercial housing and second-hand housing in China's 22 pilot cities have narrowed by 3.1 percentage points and 1 percentage point, respectively, compared with 2019.
In the second half of the year and some time after now, how will China's property market regulation and control be exerted?
Han Zheng, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council, recently presided over a teleconference of the State Council and pointed out that the development of affordable rental housing is a key task of housing construction in the "14th Five-Year Plan" period. It also emphasized the "full implementation of a long-term real estate mechanism for stabilizing land prices, housing prices, and expectations."
Liu Hongyu, director of the Institute of Real Estate Studies at Tsinghua University, said that the next step in real estate regulation should continue to adhere to the positioning of "no speculation in housing" and "not using real estate as a short-term means of stimulating the economy" as the most fundamental principle.
Based on this premise, China's property market policy may present six key points in the future.
——Increase the supply of affordable rental housing
Recently, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Affordable Rental Housing", clearly expanding the supply of affordable rental housing and alleviating the structural supply shortage in the housing rental market.
Affordable rental housing mainly solves the housing difficulties of eligible new citizens, young people and other groups, mainly small apartments with a construction area of no more than 70 square meters.
Yan Rong, president of the Shanghai Institute of Real Estate Sciences, pointed out that the "Opinions" responded to some prominent problems facing China's housing development and made up for the obvious shortcomings of the housing security system.
The full implementation of the relatively high-value measures proposed in the "Opinions" will enable new citizens and young people to be able to rent, afford, rent near, rent securely, and rent well in large cities with a net influx of population.
——Implement the main responsibility of the city
The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has previously made it clear that cities with weak regulation and large market fluctuations must be resolutely held accountable.
Since the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has successively investigated and supervised or interviewed 13 cities including Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing and Hangzhou.
Yu Xiaofen, vice president of Zhejiang University of Technology, pointed out that in addition to fulfilling the main responsibilities of the city government, the provincial government must also play a supervisory and supervisory role.
There are 293 prefecture-level cities and 1301 counties in mainland China. It is not enough for so many cities to rely solely on the supervision of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development. They must also play the role of provincial governments.
For example, Zhejiang Province has issued policies in recent years to establish a monitoring system for the prices of commercial housing and second-hand housing in various counties and cities, which has played a very good role in monitoring price increases.
——Strengthening real estate financial management
In the first half of this year, the real estate financial environment continued to tighten.
Experts believe that in the future, real estate regulation will improve the "third-line and four-tier" financing management rules, strictly implement the management system for the concentration of real estate loans of commercial banks, and strengthen the supervision and management of small and medium-sized banks.
Resolutely investigate and deal with business loans, credit loans, consumer loans and other funds used to purchase houses in violation of regulations.
Liu Hongyu explained that, on the one hand, real estate financial management is for real estate companies, and the debt situation of real estate companies has undergone positive changes after more than a year of policy guidance; on the other hand, it is for financial institutions.
In the future, housing-related financial policies may be further deepened. For example, there are some guiding policies for down payment and mortgage interest rates.
——Establish a real estate linkage mechanism
Experts believe that in the future, Beijing may implement the practice of restricting housing prices, controlling land prices, and improving quality of residential land in Beijing.
At the same time, strictly review the qualifications of land-purchasing enterprises, and establish a land-purchase fund review and refund mechanism.
Liu Hongyu said that on the one hand, cities that need to increase housing supply should actually increase land supply.
On the other hand, the land supply structure also needs to continue to be optimized, including strengthening the supply of affordable rental housing land.
——Strengthen the coordination of departments to form a joint force for regulation and control
Real estate regulation involves multiple departments.
Experts believe that a real estate market data sharing mechanism should be established to provide data support for timely and accurate market regulation.
——Continue to rectify the order of the real estate market
Seriously investigate and deal with violations of laws and regulations in real estate development, intermediary, property, and leasing, purify the market environment, and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the people.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Public Security jointly issued a notice on continuous improvement and regulation of the real estate market.
The notice stated that it will strive to achieve a significant improvement in the order of the real estate market in about three years.
In addition, the policy toolbox for regulation will continue to be enriched and improved. Yan Rong pointed out that the five types of policies, including currency, finance, taxation, and market supervision, are the five key aspects of market regulation and long-term mechanism. As the market develops and evolves, the toolbox of property market regulation may continue to be enriched. (Finish)