Many places have introduced new policies to support real estate, and housing subsidies have taken the lead.

With the recent official statements on optimizing and adjusting the real estate policy, a new round of stabilizing the property market has revived. The analysis generally believes that the signal that the current "policy bottom" is once again solid is obvious.

However, in the process of great changes in the relationship between supply and demand, it is particularly important to judge the boundaries and trends of policy easing. In the attempt to adjust and explore, many cities first gave a relatively safe way of encouragement-housing subsidies.

Data map: There are many high-rise buildings in the city. China News Service reporter Wang Dongming photo

Two provincial capitals increased subsidies.

On August 4th, according to the official micro-signal "Nanjing Real Estate Micro-government" of Nanjing Housing Security and Real Estate Bureau, Nanjing issued the notice of "Further Optimizing Policy Measures to Promote the Stable and Healthy Development of Nanjing Real Estate Market". The first of the eight policies is the implementation subsidy for purchasing new commercial housing.

Specifically, the new six districts are encouraged to continue to give a certain proportion of housing subsidies to those who buy new commercial housing within the specified period according to the actual regional market, and Qixia District and Yuhuatai District will give subsidies to the purchase of new commercial housing after evaluation based on the actual market within their respective jurisdictions, so as to effectively reduce the burden of rigid and improved housing purchase.

Zhao Qian, a senior analyst at the Central Finger Research Institute, pointed out that as early as 2022, several suburban areas in Nanjing, such as Liuhe, Lishui and Gaochun, had already implemented a series of subsidy policies. This official document, in addition to re-emphasizing that the new six districts can continue to implement housing subsidies, mentioned the new regulations for Qixia and Yuhuatai for the first time.

"This is also a policy put forward by Nanjing after comprehensively studying the buyers in various regional markets. Later, each district will introduce specific implementation details, and the implementation effect remains to be seen." Zhao Wei said.

Nanjing has also become the second provincial capital city to join in this round of property market adjustment. Just the day before the introduction of the New Deal, Zhengzhou issued 15 policies to regulate the property market, which also put the content of housing subsidies at the forefront, including subsidies for young talents to buy houses, families with many children to buy houses, and deed tax on housing purchases.

"Zhengzhou has a total of 15 policies, and 3 of them all mention various subsidies, which fully shows that in this round of property market boosting work, financial subsidies and other tools will be actively used, reflecting the new orientation of the current housing purchase policy." Yan Yuejin, research director of Yiju Research Institute, said.

　　Data Map: Painting boats swim on Qinhuai River in Nanjing, Jiangsu. China News Service reporter Li Bo photo

What is the thrust of the "icing on the cake" policy?

Following Politburo meeting of the Chinese Communist Party’s "timely adjustment and optimization of real estate policy" on July 24th, and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development followed closely to clarify the direction of policy support, many places quickly launched actions to release policies related to stabilizing the property market, and the content related to housing subsidies also became hot.

On August 4th, Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province issued 18 real estate measures, which mentioned supporting the implementation of house purchase subsidies and continuing to implement phased house purchase deed tax subsidies. On August 1st, Jiangsu Jurong introduced a new policy to stabilize the property market, including deed tax subsidies for families with many children to buy new houses and deed tax subsidies for new commercial housing. On the same day, Sichuan Ya ‘an Economic and Technological Development Zone issued a new policy to stabilize the property market, and proposed to buy new houses to subsidize the purchase of houses, including subsidies for talents and families with many children.

"The biggest feeling is that although I spent a lot of money to buy a house before, I still feel like I am getting a subsidy." Citizen Xiao Miao (pseudonym) bought a new house in July this year, and after paying the deed tax, she applied for a subsidy for talents to buy a house. She received a short message one week after the application, and the money arrived less than half an hour later.

On social platforms, more and more people share their experience of applying for housing subsidies like Xiao Miao. At present, granting housing subsidies is one of the important means for cities to support housing consumption, and the frequency and proportion of policies remain high.

According to the statistics of the Central Finger Research Institute, in the first half of 2023, more than 50 cities have implemented the housing subsidy policy. The subsidy methods mainly include one-time subsidies according to sets or areas, one-time or phased payment of deed tax subsidies, payment of consumer vouchers subsidies, talent housing subsidies, and a certain proportion of housing price subsidies.

"In the short term, it is expected that the demand-side policy will still focus on reducing the threshold and cost of buying a house. The’ one district, one policy’ and the combination of the birth policy are important directions, and the credit policy for improving housing demand is also expected to increase." Chen Wenjing, director of market research at the Central Finger Research Institute, said.

However, there are also voices that housing subsidies tend to be short-term encouragement and assistance, and cannot really become a decisive factor affecting property buyers. The White Paper on House Purchase Intention in 2023 published by Leju. com shows that tax adjustment and house purchase subsidy have little influence on decision-making. In the choice of "which of the following changes will affect your decision to buy a house", "tax/interest rate will continue to decrease" and "large house purchase subsidy" can only affect 4.81% and 11.12% of buyers.

"Judging from the current relaxed environment of the property market as a whole, most of the housing subsidies in various places are part of the’ combination boxing’ of local regulation and relaxation." Zhang Bo, president of 58 Anjuke Research Institute, previously commented on the housing subsidy policy, saying that the effectiveness of a single policy on market release is relatively limited, and it needs to form a joint force with other regulatory relaxation policies, which will have a certain influence on the market.