Hohhot leads the way in easing home purchase restrictions
Mainland city relaxes curbs on home purchases as local authorities try to find ways to stimulate market without incurring the wrath of Beijing
Hohhot has dropped the requirement for property buyers to submit their certificates of homeownership, making it the first city to relax home-purchase restrictions on the mainland to help stabilise the struggling real estate market.
However, real estate industry players told the South China Morning Post yesterday they had not received any new guidelines from the housing bureau regarding the latest policy and there had been no change to the way they did business.
"Relaxing home-purchase restrictions in low-tier cities is urgently needed. There will be more cities following suit," said Edison Bian, the research head of China property at UOB Kay Hian in Hong Kong. "No major policy relaxation is expected in the key cities."
In Hohhot, the relaxation of the policy has so far remained only on paper.
"Home-purchase restrictions still exist. A certificate stating how many homes our clients already own is still needed when we help them register the transaction with the housing bureau," said Liu Hui, who is with local property agency Jingcheng Guangsha.
Phone inquiries to the local housing bureau were eventually directed to the general office of the city government, which did not answer the phone.
Hohhot is the capital of Inner Mongolia, known for its coal mines and heavy pollution.