The faint chill in the Northeast property market has been torn apart by Harbin.

The latest market news shows that in order to promote the healthy and stable development of the real estate market, the Harbin Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau, together with the Municipal Natural Planning Bureau, the Municipal Finance Bureau and other departments, jointly issued a "rescue" policy, including a maximum subsidy of ten Ten thousand yuan, relaxing the housing provident fund loan age limit for second-hand housing, and helping real estate companies speed up project construction, etc.

As the provincial capital of Heilongjiang, Harbin is known as the "Ice City" and "Oriental Moscow" because of its ice and snow scenery. However, its property market performance is far less prosperous than tourism. Data from multiple institutions show that the Harbin property market as a whole is showing a downward trend in both volume and price. The recurrence of the epidemic has once again cooled down the Harbin market.

When the market was in a downturn, Harbin took the initiative to support the situation, which was considered by the industry to have strong signaling significance.

"The current contradictions in the property market in many cities across the country have turned from overheating to overcooling, and new risks have emerged at the same time, namely the financial risks of real estate companies. Actively introducing policies to protect them is in line with expectations and will help promote The active market transactions promote the sound operation of real estate companies," said Yan Yuejin, research director of the Think Tank Center of E-House Research Institute.

The maximum subsidy for buying a house is 100,000 yuan

Recently, the Harbin Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau has joined forces with the Municipal Natural Planning Bureau, Municipal Finance Bureau, Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, State Administration of Taxation, Harbin Municipal Taxation Bureau, etc. Many departments issued the "Implementation Opinions on Promoting the Stable and Healthy Development of our City's Real Estate Market" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), and the official meaning of "rescuing the market" is extremely obvious.

Among them, the most attention-grabbing one is undoubtedly the granting of house purchase subsidies.

According to the "Opinions", in order to attract talents to buy houses in Kazakhstan, those who have signed employment contracts or service agreements with local employers, paid 6 months of social security, and those who have started their own businesses and are under the age of 35 Talents of all types can enjoy housing subsidies when purchasing their first commercial housing in Kazakhstan.

The housing purchase subsidy is paid out in a one-time monetary form, with RMB 100,000 for full-time doctoral students, RMB 50,000 for full-time master’s students, RMB 30,000 for full-time undergraduates, and RMB 30,000 for college and technical secondary school students (including technical college students). 20,000 yuan. New citizens who are not originally from the local area and come to Kazakhstan for work or other reasons can also enjoy a house purchase subsidy for buying their first commercial house, with a standard payment of 10,000 yuan.

At the same time, the housing provident fund loan age limit for second-hand housing has also been relaxed, from 20 years to 30 years, and the sum of the loan term and house age shall not exceed 50 years. For female cadres at the county (department) level and female professional and technical personnel with senior professional titles, the housing provident fund personal loan age is adjusted from 55 to 60.

Allow employees who have paid provident funds in other places to buy houses in Kazakhstan and apply for provident fund loans; relax the policy for flexible employment personnel to establish a household and pay provident fund, and apply for deposit of housing provident fund by opening a social security account; relax the housing provident fund portfolio loan business, and employees can use it If the provident fund loan still cannot meet the needs, you can apply for a combination loan.

“The policy starts from the housing consumption side and implements the destocking policy through multiple channels.” Yan Yuejin believes that the new policy can reduce the cost of home buyers entering the market, and at the same time provide guarantees in terms of finance, finance, taxes and fees. Helps encourage home buyers to actively enter the market.

Not only that, the "Opinions" also provided "rush assistance" to real estate companies. During the policy period, for enterprises with annual credit ratings of green card or blue card, projects that have obtained land use rights before June 1, 2022, and the high-rise buildings reach the main construction image of the first-floor project, and the multi-story buildings reach the main construction image of the second-floor project, can be regarded as Apply for a commercial housing pre-sale license.

For projects that have implemented commercial housing pre-sale fund supervision and meet the conditions for return, they should be returned as soon as possible. If there is still a balance after deducting 5% of the retained regulatory funds from the amount of regulatory funds entered into the account, on the basis of returning the regulatory funds at each stage, 20% of the original repayable amount will be increased at each stage to reduce the liquidity pressure of the enterprise.

Yan Yuejin believes that the above regulations will help real estate companies to better conduct sales and project development, and are a very pragmatic "business rescue policy." Such policies also reflect the various pressures currently faced by real estate companies, including liquidity pressure, pressure on taxes and various expenditures, and pressure on project sales.

Will more cities follow?

In 2021, the real estate market environment will take a sharp turn for the worse, and it will begin to cool down due to strong regulation. It used to be a limit on increases, but now it's a "limit on falls." However, few cities have rescued the market in an official name. Previously, the Changchun Real Estate Industry Association issued a "Notice on the Stable Development of the Real Estate Market", which was also interpreted as releasing a "relaxation signal."

Harbin takes the initiative to support the property market, which is influenced by both the general environment and its own specific factors.

According to a research report previously released by Tongce, in the first half of this year, there was an imbalance between supply and demand in the Harbin property market, and some real estate companies in Songbei District slashed prices, which led to a lack of confidence in the overall market and a drop in both volume and price; the top ten projects were transacted The average volume was less than 100,000 square meters, the transaction volume dropped by 35% year-on-year, prices fell overall, and low-price projects became the dominant one.

“In the previous 2017-2018 years, driven by new districts and investment enthusiasm, the Harbin market was too hot, causing market customers to overdraw in advance.” The above-mentioned research report said that the increase in housing prices from 2018 to 2020 was supplemented by Finally, more growth possibilities are overdrawn, and there is no room for price replenishment in the short cycle.

In fact, not only is it difficult to make up for the increase, Harbin’s housing prices are already showing signs of declining. According to the latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, in August 2021, the sales price index of new commercial housing in Harbin fell by 0.3% month-on-month and 0.6% year-on-year; the sales price index of second-hand housing fell by 0.2% month-on-month and 0.6% year-on-year.

The real estate market is "gold nine and silver ten", and Harbin did not accidentally "break the promise". Data from Tongce shows that in the last week of September, 769 units of commercial housing were supplied in the 6 districts of Harbin’s main city, and 915 units were sold, with an average price of 7,646 yuan/square meter. Both volume and price of the property market have dropped, and the epidemic has become a cooling factor for Harbin’s property market. agent.

During the National Day Golden Week, many real estate properties in Harbin were marketed in fancy ways, launching special offers, offering instant discounts of 100,000 yuan on home purchases, participating in Tmall Haofang’s 1 yuan instant sale for 1 square meter, and receiving 60,000 yuan in decoration funds upon completion of the transaction, etc. There are preferential activities, but judging from the actual market temperature, the property market sentiment is still difficult to boost, and it is not uncommon for sales offices to be sparsely populated.

Based on the sluggish property market trend, there have been rumors that Harbin will take action to rescue the market. The industry believes that the official "Opinions" issued this time are precise measures based on market contradictions, which are bound to activate the demand for home purchases in the fourth quarter and help prevent the risk of a decline in market transaction scale.

Yan Yuejin believes that Harbin City’s policies also mean that policy risks have changed in the near future. It is expected that other cities across the country will follow suit, especially cities with greater destocking pressure and operating pressure from real estate companies, including non-core second-tier cities and some third- and fourth-tier cities in the central and western regions. Of course, when fine-tuning the policy, we must pay attention to the caliber and market response, and adhere to the principle of "housing is for living, not for speculation."