Less than two weeks after announcing an easing of home purchase procedures, Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, has done an about-face, and reverted to the original system.
The changes involve the so-called purchaser verification system, under which the central government has sought to limit third-home purchases. Chengdu said on November 21 that it was strictly implementing the home purchase restrictions regime, under which only the government can verify home purchasers' eligibility.
However, on November 11, Chengdu's Bureau of Housing and Urban-Rural Development had moved to ease the process by saying developers and property agents would be authorised to check the home purchase qualification when signing up deals online, according to a Chengdu property agent who asked not to be named.
The agent said the bureau also declared on November 11 that it would only verify the qualification when the housing ownership certificate had been registered and granted.
'The new policy [unveiled on November 11] was seen as a relaxation of home purchasers' verification, and therefore a relaxation of home purchase restrictions,' the agent said.
This was because a developer or agent that did not check too thoroughly might allow ineligible buyers to buy the units and hold them in the hope that the central government would relax its home restriction policy in the next two years.