‘Two sessions’ 2021: China to expand land supply to rein in runaway home prices as premier vows to get a grip on affordability
- The government will make more land available for developers to turn into housing stock to bring prices down
- The government will also increase the supply of subsidised rental homes and shared ownership housing
China’s government will make more land available for developers to increase the housing stock in the world’s largest property market, as it keeps a tight lid on runaway prices to ensure that affordability is within the reach of the nation’s first-home buyers.
The government will also increase the supply of subsidised rental homes and shared ownership housing to ensure well-regulated development of the long-term rental housing market, and cut taxes and rental fees.
“We will keep the prices of land and housing, as well as market expectations stable,” Premier Li Keqiang said in his annual work report to China’s legislature in Beijing. “We will address prominent housing issues in large cities [and] make every effort to address the housing difficulties faced by our people, especially new urban residents and young people.”
Runaway prices and affordability are listed as “difficulties” in the prime minister’s report, the most drastic prognosis on the real estate sector in recent years. Last year’s report pledged to “promote steady and healthy development of the real estate market,” while the 2019 plan was to “better address housing needs.”
Four decades of rapid economic growth has turned the communal housing of Mao Zedong’s era into some of the world’s tallest flats, biggest private housing estates and most opulent villas, in the process turning China’s property market into the largest on earth, with last year’s sales value of new homes topping US$2.7 trillion.