China property: Hangzhou takes aggressive step to remove all curbs on home purchases as easing measures snowball across cities

Name: Boom, bust and borrow: Has China’s housing market tanked?
Uploaded: 2024-05-09T06:20:26.000Z
Duration: 10 min 57 s
Description: Boom, bust and borrow: Has China’s housing market tanked?

The easing measures are the most aggressive yet by any mainland city since China gave its ‘green light’ at the April 30 Politburo meeting

More mainland cities are expected to emulate some of Hangzhou’s latest incentives, E-House’s Yan says

Reading Time:2 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

A man riding his electric bicycle on a street near a residential area modelled on Paris in Hangzhou. Photo; AFP

Yuke Xiein Beijing

Published: 2:20pm, 9 May 2024Updated: 4:50pm, 9 May 2024

Hangzhou, the capital of eastern Zhejiang province and a major technology hub in China, is removing all restrictions on home purchases to revive the local housing market, which marks the most aggressive measure by a municipal government following an apparent green-light from the nation’s top leadership last month.

The city, home to e-commerce leader Alibaba Group Holding and carmaker Geely, will no longer check the qualification of potential buyers, the housing bureau said in a statement on Thursday. Developers will get a free hand in selling units in projects that are undersubscribed, instead of following a lottery-based system to clear them, it added.

The changes will also allow non-local homeowners in Hangzhou to apply for a local residency permit, it added. The city will grant favourable mortgage rates to first-time buyers seeking a new home in the city, and to others who are in the midst of selling their existing properties, it added.

The measures put Hangzhou as the first among Chinese cities to scrap all curbs since April 30, when China’s Politburo called on local authorities to digest existing housing inventory and “optimise policies around new housing.” Today’s move came on top of past incremental tweaks that have done little to rejuvenate the property market from a multi-year slump.

10:57

Boom, bust and borrow: Has China’s housing market tanked?

Hangzhou’s move is “very significant”, said Yan Yuejin, director of Shanghai-based E-House China Research and Development Institute. “The relaxation will have important implications for other cities where curbs are still in place, and will play a crucial role in shoring up confidence.”

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x