Li Sha, reporter of the 21st Century Business Herald in Beijing, reported that on May 9, 2024, Hangzhou issued the Notice on Optimizing and Adjusting the Real Estate Market Regulation Policy, which clearly cancelled the housing purchase restriction.

In September 2016, Hangzhou began to implement a new round of purchase restriction policies. Since then, the policies have been gradually tightened, including raising the threshold for housing purchase, implementing the lottery for new houses, and suspending the purchase of enterprises. The purchase restriction policies have been refined and upgraded many times. In May 2022, Hangzhou's purchase restriction policy ushered in a turning point. Later, the purchase restriction policy gradually loosened, the threshold for house purchase gradually decreased, and the purchase restriction scope was narrowed for many times. Since October 16 last year, Hangzhou's purchase restriction scope has been narrowed to upper urban areas, Gongshu District, Xihu District, and Binjiang District.

On March 14 this year, Hangzhou issued another document to cancel the purchase restrictions on second-hand houses. The purchase restriction policy has been greatly optimized, and the seasonal recovery of the market has led to a significant increase in second-hand housing transactions from March to April. However, the sustainability of the policy effect remains to be seen.

According to the data of Hangzhou Shell Research Institute, 8557 second-hand houses were online signed in Hangzhou in March, up 236% month on month and still down 21% year on year. In April, the number of second-hand housing online signings decreased slightly by 1.8% to 8402 units, down 10% compared with the same period last year. In addition, the proportion of houses with price cuts in April rose to 94%, down 20% month on month.

Nearly two months after the withdrawal of the purchase restriction on second-hand housing, Hangzhou launched another heavy policy to completely eliminate the purchase restriction on housing. Since then, the history of purchase restriction in Hangzhou has come to an end.

Shangguanjian, the president of Hangzhou Shellfish Research Institute, told the 21st Century Economic Herald that the complete cancellation of the purchase restriction, on the one hand, is conducive to the willing and capable people from all over the country to come to Hangzhou to buy houses and directly help the new sales in the main urban area; On the other hand, promote the release of local improvement demand more actively, and further maintain the activity of the new housing market in the main urban area.

Yan Yuejin, the research director of E-House Research Institute, said that Hangzhou's complete removal of purchase restrictions was the first city case in China to completely eliminate purchase restrictions after the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee at the end of April. It is also instructive for other cities that have purchase restrictions, and also helps to boost the subsequent Hangzhou property market.

According to the monitoring data of the China Index Research Institute, up to now, except for Hainan Province, the policies of Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen in core cities are still relatively strict, and the policies of limited purchase in some core areas of cities such as Guangzhou (less than 120 square meters), Tianjin (less than 120 square meters of new houses, etc.), Xi'an, etc. According to the agency's analysis, it is expected that these cities will continue to optimize the purchase restriction policies in the future, especially in the second tier cities, and the pace of adjustment of the purchase restriction policies may be accelerated. At the same time, the policies of core cities such as reducing the down payment ratio, reducing the mortgage interest rate, and reducing transaction taxes are also expected to be adjusted.

In addition to the cancellation of purchase restrictions, Hangzhou's new property market policy has also been adjusted and optimized in terms of strengthening housing credit support and optimizing the settlement of points.

According to the new policy, in terms of housing loans, if Hangzhou buyers have no housing in the urban area of the purchased housing, or have only one housing in the urban area of the purchased housing and are listing for sale, the mortgage loans for the newly purchased housing can be identified as the first housing.

In terms of settlement, non Hangzhou residents who have obtained housing with legal property rights in Hangzhou can apply for settlement.

Shangguanjian said that housing purchase and settlement means relaxing the threshold of settlement, which is a restart since 2016, which is conducive to attracting population inflow, increasing the attractiveness of housing purchase, and directly benefiting the school district housing. The loan of the first house is linked to the listing of the original house, and most buyers in Hangzhou can enjoy the treatment of the first house, which greatly reduces the purchase cost of families planning to "sell the old for the new".

On the whole, Shangguanjian believes that the introduction of the new policy has a positive effect on stabilizing the confidence of Hangzhou property market, as well as the volume and price of Hangzhou market.

"This policy is of great significance. It is popularly understood that you can settle down when you buy a house." Yan Yuejin suggested that other cities also introduce similar policies, which will organically combine boosting the housing market with providing settlement policies.