Optimize the housing provident fund loan policy in many places： reduce the down payment and increase the amount
Recently, many places have further optimized the housing provident fund policy: the down payment ratio of the first and second housing provident fund loans has been reduced to 20%, and the amount of provident fund loans has been raised to one million yuan. It is worth noting that some first-tier cities such as Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen have also introduced optimization measures.
Wang Qing, chief macro analyst of Oriental Jincheng, told the Securities Daily reporter that the recent intensive adjustment of housing provident fund policies in many places across the country was mainly due to the fact that the property market weakened again in the second quarter, and all localities generally increased their support for the real estate industry. Appropriately optimizing the household provident fund policy within the scope of its own authority is in line with the principle of city-specific policy, and is conducive to supporting rigid and improved housing demand. It is an important part of the current policy combination boxing in various places.
The first and second sets of provident fund loans in many places
Down payment reduced to 20%
Recently, many places have optimized the provident fund policy and reduced the down payment ratio of the first or second housing provident fund loans.
For example, Bijie Housing Provident Fund Management Center of Guizhou Province issued six new measures to support employees to purchase houses, including adjusting the maximum loan amount, implementing preferential policies for families with many children, reducing the down payment ratio of second homes, etc., to support the rigid and improved demand for housing provident fund to pay employees to buy houses.
Among them, in terms of reducing the down payment ratio of the second suite, the above measures pointed out that if the paid employees settle the housing loan of the first suite, the minimum down payment ratio for purchasing the second suite to apply for provident fund loans will be adjusted from 30% to 20%; If the first suite of employees is paid as a commercial loan, the minimum down payment ratio for applying for the second suite personal housing provident fund loan is 30%.
In addition to reducing the down payment ratio of the second suite, Lianyungang and other places have recently lowered the down payment ratio of the first suite. On June 26th, Lianyungang Housing and Construction Bureau issued the Notice on Further Promoting the Stable and Healthy Development of the Real Estate Market to reduce the down payment ratio of housing provident fund loans. Specifically, the minimum down payment ratio will be adjusted from 30% to 20% if the employees’ families are paid to purchase the first set of housing for provident fund loans.
In addition to the adjustment of the down payment ratio, the maximum amount of provident fund loans in many places has also increased significantly. At present, among the first-tier cities, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen all propose to increase the amount of provident fund loans for families with many children. Guangzhou Housing Provident Fund Management Center issued a notice on June 28th. In order to implement the positive birth support measures, if families with two or more children (at least one child is underage) use housing provident fund loans to purchase the first self-occupied housing, the maximum amount of housing provident fund loans will rise by 30%. In addition, Shanghai has implemented the housing provident fund support policy for families with many children, and the maximum loan limit for eligible families has been raised by 20%.
Wang Qing said that the recent continuous optimization of policies and measures by first-tier cities in terms of provident fund will help to reverse the weak property market since May. More importantly, this has released a signal that the policy of stabilizing the property market will be further overweight, which will drive other second-and third-tier cities to actively implement policies and guide the national real estate market to stabilize and recover as soon as possible.
Stable property market policy
Or continue to be introduced.
Since the beginning of this year, housing purchase support policies have been introduced intensively in various places, among which optimizing the provident fund policy is one of the important means to support housing consumption in various places. Chen Wenjing, director of market research at the Central Finger Research Institute, told the Securities Daily that since 2023, many policies have been introduced to increase the amount of provident fund loans, reduce the down payment ratio of provident fund, allow provident fund to pay down payment, support "business-to-public" loans, and increase the amount of provident fund for renting houses, which will not only increase the support of provident fund for buyers, but also improve the efficiency of provident fund use.
Chen Wenjing believes that there were some limitations in the extraction of housing provident fund before, but the policies of paying down payment and rent by urban provident fund and piloting flexible employment provident fund were introduced one after another, which expanded the scope of the use of provident fund, reflecting that the policies of various cities were more flexible, and there was still room for further improvement in most urban provident fund policies.
For the future, Wang Qing believes that the recent policies are increasing the support from both the supply and demand sides of the real estate industry, in combination with the gradual introduction of moderate relaxation of restrictions on purchases and sales, the issuance of housing subsidies, the extension of the time limit for the payment of land transfer fees, the implementation of the dynamic adjustment mechanism of mortgage interest rates, the increase of housing provident fund support, and the central bank’s continued implementation of the loan support plan for guaranteed housing. To some extent, this can also be regarded as an integral part of "strengthening macro-policy control". The follow-up real estate support policies are expected to be further strengthened, among which it is most critical to guide the downward trend of residential mortgage interest rates. (Reporter Peng Yu)