China property: Hangzhou and Chengdu ease purchase rules to spur housing transactions
Zhejiang province’s capital lifts price restrictions for homes built on newly acquired land and cuts initial payments for new and used homes
Hangzhou and Chengdu have sweetened their policies related to residential property within their city limits, showing that bolder steps are being rolled out by big mainland Chinese cities to stabilise the market.
Local authorities in the Zhejiang provincial capital of Hangzhou, home to Chinese tech leaders Alibaba Group Holding and carmaker Geely Auto, removed price restrictions for homes built on newly acquired land in the city, according to a notice from the housing bureau late on Wednesday.
The city also lowered the down payment requirement to 15 per cent from 20 per cent for first-time homebuyers, and to 15 per cent from 30 per cent for second homes, according to the notice.
“It is expected that housing prices in Hangzhou will [stop] dropping further,” said Yan Yuejin, vice-president of Shanghai-based E-House China Real Estate Research Institute.
“Following the new policies, as well as a rebound in housing transactions during the ‘golden week’ [holiday], we expect a frenzy among builders to snap up land in Hangzhou.”
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Price restrictions, which were imposed nationwide in 2016 to contain runaway home prices in the red-hot market, hampered a recovery in the world’s second-largest economy following the slowdown since 2021.
