China’s property slump: Beijing ends curbs on multiple home ownership in outer areas of city to stimulate buying
- Families that reach current ownership limits will be allowed to purchase one more home in the area outside Beijing’s fifth ring road
- Home transactions outside the fifth ring road accounted for around 80 per cent of the total in the city in 2023, according to Centaline
China’s capital Beijing has relaxed some rules on multiple home purchases after 13 years as part of the country’s effort to stimulate a stubbornly stagnant property market.
Families that reach current ownership limits will be allowed to purchase one more home in the area outside Beijing’s fifth ring road, according to a notice issued by the housing authority late Tuesday.
In addition, single adults who hold a Beijing hukou, or permanent residence permit, as well as non-hukou holders who have paid social insurance or income tax for five or more years, will be allowed to buy a second property in the area.
The easing of the rules – originally put in place in 2011 to ease speculative buying – came on the same day that new statistics underscored the property market’s continued slump. New home sales in April by the top 100 Chinese developers drooped 44.9 per cent year on year to 312.2 billion yuan (US$43 billion), and fell by 12.9 per cent compared with March, according to China Real Estate Information Corporation.
