China News Service, Hangzhou, May 18 (Reporter Xi Jinyan) With the release of the signal to stabilize the property market since the end of April, the pace of optimizing the property market regulation policy has accelerated again.
Hangzhou, which has always had stricter real estate policies before, has also joined the loosening army this time.
On May 17, the Office of the Leading Group for the Stable and Healthy Development of the Hangzhou Real Estate Market issued the "Notice on Further Promoting the Stable and Healthy Development of the Real Estate Market" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), and a new round of new policies for the real estate market came into effect.
Hangzhou's new policy refers to the current sluggish second-hand housing market, and activates the vitality of the second-hand housing market by increasing room tickets and reducing deed taxes.
This is also the first time since 2016 that Hangzhou's property market policy has turned to relaxation.
As a population influx, the Hangzhou property market has a lot of potential housing demand.
However, since the second half of last year, the transaction volume of second-hand housing in Hangzhou has been decreasing month by month. Will spring be ushered in the warm wind of this new policy?
Lower the threshold for second-hand housing purchase restrictions
Many people are not surprised by the new property market policies introduced in Hangzhou today.
The current heat of the Hangzhou property market can be described as uneven: the new housing market is still booming, but the second-hand housing has dropped to the "freezing point".
According to the statistics of Hangzhou Shell Research Institute, the second-hand transaction volume in Hangzhou in April was more than 4,200 sets (ten districts in Hangzhou), which fell by 60% year-on-year and 18% month-on-month after excluding Lin'an data; the average price fell by 3% month-on-month.
As of the morning of May 17, about 80,000 second-hand houses were listed in Hangzhou.
"The previous March and April were the hottest periods for our second-hand housing market. This year, our store intermediaries left more than ten people." Xiao Liu, who has been a real estate agency for more than ten years, said frankly that the second-hand housing market in Hangzhou was relatively sluggish this year.
It can be seen from this "Notice" that the starting point of Hangzhou's new policy is mainly aimed at the second-hand housing market.
The "Notice" clearly optimizes the second-hand housing transaction policy.
For those who purchase second-hand housing within the scope of purchase restriction in Hangzhou, the original stipulation that “the households with registered permanent residence in the city for less than 5 years have been paid within the scope of purchase restriction in this city for 24 consecutive months” shall be cancelled; For households without household registration in this city, the original regulation of “paying urban social security or personal income tax within the scope of the purchase limit in this city for 48 consecutive months from the 4 years before the date of purchase” is adjusted to “in the 1 year before the date of purchase of the house. Continue to pay urban social security or personal income tax for 12 months within the scope of purchase restrictions in this city.”
In other words, in Hangzhou, there is no need for social security or one-year social security to settle down, and there is a "room ticket" for a second-hand house.
But it should be noted that this ticket is only for second-hand houses.
This time, Hangzhou "does something and doesn't do something", instead of completely withdrawing from the sales restriction, but retaining a certain period of time, which ensures the keynote of "housing and not speculating".
At the same time, in order to further improve the tax adjustment policy, the "Notice" clarifies that within the scope of Hangzhou's purchase restriction, if an individual transfers the only house in a family, the VAT collection and exemption period will be adjusted from 5 years to 2 years.
For individuals who transfer non-family housing, the value-added tax exemption period is still 5 years.
Regarding the new property market policy that has just been introduced, Aunt Huang, who has always wanted to buy a second-hand house, is looking forward to this wave of "welfare".
Take Aunt Huang's optimistic view of a community in the west of Hangzhou as an example. The current total price of the real estate is about 5 million yuan (RMB, the same below).
"According to the good '5 to 2' in Hangzhou's current round of policies, I can probably save 265,000 yuan in value-added tax." Aunt Huang combined with the news that the lower limit of the first home loan interest rate was lowered a few days ago, and calculated that the money saved can be Enough for their small family's expenses for a year.
One more house purchase quota for families with three children
In addition, this new policy has better taken care of the housing needs of three-child families.
Eligible three-child families will increase the number of housing units within the scope of purchase restrictions in Hangzhou by 1 unit; when registering for the public lottery sales of new commercial housing, refer to the priority lottery for "houseless families".
In fact, there are already signs of this.
In January 2022, in the process of high-quality development and construction of a demonstration zone for common prosperity, Zhejiang proposed four main approaches to promote the construction of a "child-rearing-friendly society".
Among them, it is mentioned that the rationing mechanism of affordable housing should be optimized, preference should be given to families with multiple children, and the loan amount of housing provident fund for families with three children should be increased and given priority in lending.
From a national perspective, preferential policies for home purchases for families with two and three children in various cities have been launched one after another.
For example, Nanjing, Dongguan, Jiangsu, Ningbo, etc. have all introduced the new policy of "Families with two or three children are allowed to purchase a new suite".
However, some experts believe that the implementation of the three-child policy has not yet reached the first anniversary. In theory, such families may be born one after another, but the number is still relatively small, and more is the significance of the wind direction.
Experts predict that preferential policies for home purchases for families with two and three children will be one of the key directions for future property market regulation.
Increase liquidity in the second-hand housing market
Since the beginning of this year, real estate policies in many places have continuously released positive signals.
The People's Bank of China and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued a notice on the 15th to adjust the differentiated housing credit policy. For households who take out loans to buy ordinary self-owned houses, the lower limit of the interest rate of the first commercial personal housing loan is adjusted to be no lower than the market quotation rate of the loan of the corresponding period ( LPR) minus 20 basis points.
Based on the loan amount of 500,000 yuan, the term of 30 years, and the repayment of equal principal and interest, the interest rate will be reduced by 20 basis points, and the monthly payment will be reduced by about 60 yuan per month on average.
However, some homebuyers said that the difference between buying a home is not the monthly interest, and they are looking forward to reducing the down payment ratio for a second home to release the demand for improved home purchases.
In this regard, Ding Jiangang, a real estate research and commentary expert in Zhejiang Province, said that whether the market will recover, or to what extent, depends not only on mortgage interest rates, nor only on real estate market policies, but also on people's concerns about the economy and the economy. Social development, especially the expectations of family employment and income.
Ding Jiangang said that the new policy introduced in Hangzhou this time is very targeted, focusing on the second-hand housing market, "No social security is required after settlement, and it only takes 12 months of social security or personal tax to purchase a second-hand house with a non-local hukou, which undoubtedly increases a part of the purchase of houses. Demand, especially after college students and the elderly settle down, they can directly buy second-hand houses.”
At the same time, Ding Jiangang also said that the new property market policy in Hangzhou not only increased the demand for housing in the second-hand housing market, but also encouraged the transfer of the family's only housing for replacement and improvement.
It will have a certain role in promoting the blocking of second-hand housing transactions.
Yan Yuejin, research director of the Think Tank Center of E-House Research Institute, said in an interview with the media that the new policy will have positive significance for the property market, and objectively help to revitalize second-hand housing in downtown Hangzhou and accelerate the circulation of housing stock.
Focusing on the present, Ding Jiangang believes that the core problem of the Hangzhou real estate market and even the national real estate market is confidence.
"Confidence is more important than gold." He said that local governments should coordinate financial credit and taxation, and introduce a package of rescue policies, even including policies to directly issue money or consumer coupons to people.
The recovery of market confidence ultimately depends on the epidemic, the economy and the international environment, which are factors that have a greater impact on people's expectations.
Hangzhou's introduction of the new property market policy this time may also represent an attitude - it will still adhere to the word "stable", and will not allow the real estate market to be overheated or too cold.
As for whether the Hangzhou property market can usher in spring, it still needs time to verify.
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