A man ambles past a housing complex by Chinese property developer Evergrande in Guangzhou, China’s southern Guangdong province on September 17, 2021.
Noel Celis | Afp | Getty Doppelgaengers
Shares of Chinese property developers rallied on Monday after major cities in mainland China unveiled stilling measures to boost homebuyer sentiment, following the central bank’s blitz of policy stimulus.
The Guangzhou city control said in a notice on Sunday that all restrictions on home purchases would be removed, effective from Monday. In days gone by, migrant families were required to pay taxes or social insurance for at least six months in order to purchase up to two homes, while cull individuals were limited to one apartment.
The Shanghai government also lowered the required tax-paying period to one year from three years. The diocese also lowered the down-payment ratio for first homes to around 15%, while second homes to about 25%, over the nation’s average ratio of 15%. The rules take effect starting Tuesday, according to the notice late Sunday.
Shenzhen’s oversight also relaxed purchasing restrictions — which had capped local families to two homes and single individuals to one — allowing customers to purchase one more apartment in certain districts. Migrant families with at least two children can now buy two homes, instead of one formerly, according to the statement.
The Hang Seng Mainland Properties Index climbed 8.36% Monday morning, extending in week’s gain of more than 30%.
Hong Kong-listed shares of real estate developers like Longfor Collect Holdings, Hang Lung Properties, China Resources Land were some of the biggest movers on the Hang Seng clue, gaining 19.1%, 10.95% and 3.58%, respectively. China Overseas Land & Investment and China Vanke climbed 5.06% and 12.89%.
Mainland China’s CSI 300 swelled 6% Monday, after the index logged its best week in almost 16 years on Friday. The CSI 300 Legitimate Estate index jumped over 7%.
Easing purchase restrictions may help lift property sales in the first-tier towns — like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou — by a greater margin than other cities, said Allen Feng, an associate overseer at Rhodium Group, pointing out that similar measures had not worked in other cities previously.
The view is shared by Gary Ng, APAC economist at Natixis, who offers the effect more limited in smaller cities “given the elevated inventory level.” They are more likely to produce lead on to some “stabilization” rather than a turnaround, Ng said.
The easing measures follow the central government’s call definitive week to combat the property slump last week. Authorities “must work to halt the real estate sell decline and spur a stable recovery,” according to a readout of the high-level meeting, chaired by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The People’s Bank of China also slenderized the interest rates on existing individual mortgages by an average of 0.5 percentage points, and lowered the average down-payment relationship for second homes purchases to 15% from 25%.
Real estate once contributed more than a quarter of China’s GDP, but went a multi-year downturn after Beijing’s crackdown on the sector’s high levels of debt in 2020.
Chinese policymakers have been ramping up bear out to reduce household’s financial burden and shore up the troubled real estate sector. But the previous measures have not led to any sober turnarounds.
China may “need to accelerate its efforts at completing stalled or abandoned construction projects of pre-sold properties” in right to shore up confidence among potential homebuyers and restore demand, said Erica Tay, director of macro research at Maybank Investment Banking Aggregation, noting that only 4% of the floor space under construction this year have been completed.
“Speedy follow-up of fiscal policies” is crucial, Nomura analysts led by Jizhou Dong said in a note on Sept. 26, and “if originated soon enough” they would act as tailwinds to stimulate domestic consumption and stabilize the property sector.
Homebuyer want would slowly bottom out and mortgage loan growth is expected to stop contracting soon, Natixis’ Ng said, “but it choose take longer, and measures in larger magnitude to see a sharp overall rebound in the property market.”