Restrictions forming long-term adjustment: expert
Eight more cities in China have recently announced regulations for the housing market, including restrictions on property purchases and sales.
From Friday to Saturday last week, eight cities released new policies to control the over-heated property market. The cities were Shijiazhuang in North China's Hebei Province, Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, Changsha in Central China's Hunan Province, Nanchang in East China's Jiangxi Province, Xi'an in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Nanning in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guiyang in Southwest China's Guizhou Province and Wuhan in Central China's Hubei Province.
Shijiazhuang stipulated on Saturday that for those without local household registration (hukou) who want to buy an apartment in the city, they must have paid income tax or social insurance fees for at least 24 consecutive months over the previous three years, according to a statement on the local government website.
It also said that houses purchased after Saturday cannot be sold within five years after purchase.
Chongqing ruled that houses purchased in the urban area since Saturday cannot be sold within two years after getting a property ownership certificate, according to a statement on the website of the Chongqing Administration of Land, Resources and Housing on Friday.
These cities are among the second-tier cities that have posted relatively high property transaction volumes recently. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed earlier in September that Changsha's new home prices increased 16.5 percent year-on-year in August. In Xi'an, the increase was 13.4 percent, in Chongqing 12.8 percent and in Shijiazhuang 9.3 percent.
Given that these cities are under pressure both to cut inventories and control house prices, they have put more of an emphasis on limiting the process of sales rather than purchases, which can help reduce house inventories and also prevent market speculation, said Yan Yuejin, a research director at Shanghai-based E-house China R&D.
The measures also show a new approach to property market regulation that prevents sales of houses soon after transactions, and this effectively implements the idea that "houses are for living in, not speculation," Yan told the Global Times on Sunday. He said this indicates that a long-term adjustment mechanism is being formed.
Considering the obvious spillover effect from high house prices in first-tier cities, Yan said more cities, especially capitals of provinces and key third-tier cities, will also release new property sales regulations, and the sales limit period may be extended.
