The property market remained cold in the first quarter, and local real estate policies were frequently warm.

Quzhou, Zhejiang has become the first city in the country to fully liberalize the policy of restricting sales and purchases in the property market. In the first quarter, more than 60 cities released policies to relax control to release housing demand.

  On April 2, the Quzhou Municipal Housing and Urban-rural Development Bureau issued the "Notice on Promoting the Virtuous Cycle and Healthy Development of the Urban Real Estate Industry" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), expressing the need to support reasonable housing needs.

Non-resident households in this city, individual industrial and commercial households, and enterprises invested or controlled by natural persons shall be deemed to implement relevant house purchase policies for households with household registration in this city.

  After the release of the "Notice", there are no restrictions on the sale of newly-built commercial housing on newly transferred land in urban areas, and newly-built commercial housing with a size of 144 square meters and above that has not been signed online, unless there is a special agreement in the land transfer announcement.

  Previously, Quzhou had implemented the purchase restriction policy from August 7, 2021.

According to the Quzhou Housing and Urban-rural Development Bureau’s notice at that time, the sale of new and second-hand houses to non-local households with one or more houses in the urban area of ​​Quzhou was suspended; non-local households without houses must pay social security or personal tax for 12 consecutive months.

In addition, the purchase of a new house of 144 square meters and above within the urban area shall not be transferred within five years from the date of online registration.

  Affected by the tightening of policies, the property market in Quzhou immediately turned cold in August last year.

  According to data from the Middle Finger Research Institute, Quzhou had only 402 new housing online signings in August last year, which was the lowest month of the year; while in March last year, when the popularity peaked, there were 1,313 new housing online signings in a single month.

In the first quarter of this year, the market was still cold and the area of ​​residential transactions fell by more than 70% year-on-year. In March, only more than 300 new houses were sold in Quzhou.

  Yan Yuejin, research director of the Think Tank Center of the E-House Research Institute, said that Quzhou's efforts to relax this time are largely related to the Quzhou market and policies.

  From the market point of view, the real estate market in cities along Jiangsu and Zhejiang is indeed not good this year, and the gap is very large compared to last year; from the perspective of policy, Quzhou has tightened its policies frequently in recent years, and even actively controlled it than the surrounding Jinhua.

Now it is also relaxing some policies that conflict with market performance, which is very similar to Harbin's previous practice.

  Recently, local property market control policies have been relaxed one after another. On April 1, Fuzhou relaxed the purchase restrictions and Harbin lifted the sales restrictions; then, Quzhou, Qinhuangdao, and Dalian also followed suit.

Among them, Qinhuangdao also lifted the purchase restriction on April 2, and Dalian fully liberalized the settlement.

  The loosening of the city has always had the problem of lack of confidence of home buyers.

Since the beginning of this year, the transaction scale of new houses in Dalian has remained low. The short-term inventory clearance cycle is more than 20 months, and the pressure of inventory destocking is relatively large.

According to the Hundred Cities Price Index of China's real estate index system, Dalian prices are still in a period of volatility, Qinhuangdao's new house prices have fallen for five consecutive months, and second-hand housing prices have fallen for 11 consecutive months.

  Since the end of last year, local easing of control policies has gradually become a trend, and the recent relaxation has been stronger and faster.

According to incomplete statistics from the China Index Research Institute, more than 60 cities issued more than 100 real estate-related policies in the first quarter, mainly involving targeted relaxation of purchase restrictions, lowering the down payment ratio, issuing housing subsidies, lowering mortgage interest rates, canceling sales restrictions, and providing funds for housing companies. In terms of support, among them, Zhengzhou implemented the requirements of the central government in March, and introduced the "19" new policies with the most extensive coverage and the most powerful policies.

  The Middle Finger Research Institute believes that the stability of real estate this year is crucial, whether from the perspective of stabilizing the economy or preventing risks.

Cities such as Dalian, Quzhou, Qinhuangdao, etc., where market confidence has not yet recovered significantly, and the pressure of short-term adjustment is relatively high, the relaxation of demand-side policies has increased, which is conducive to promoting the release of reasonable demand for housing purchases, stabilizing market expectations, and improving expectations for home buyers. Stabilization and recovery have a positive effect, and it is expected that more cities may follow suit.

  Since the second half of last year, housing companies have frequently seen liquidity crises superimposed on intensive regulation and control policies, and the overall property market has cooled down, which has not been reversed in the first quarter of this year.

According to research data from Crane, in March, the transaction area of ​​commercial housing in 30 key monitored cities increased by 48% month-on-month, and the year-on-year decline expanded to 47%.

The overall performance scale of the top 100 real estate companies also dropped by 47% year-on-year.

  With the recent policy-side warm wind blowing frequently, the market expects that the accumulated backlog of demand is expected to be gradually released, and the market can be expected to stabilize in the second quarter.