Affordable rental housing, as one of the grasping hands of "living without speculation", ushered in an important notice on the second day of the opening of the Year of the Tiger.
On the afternoon of February 8, the People's Bank of China and China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued the Notice on Excluding Loans Related to Affordable Rental Housing from the Centralized Management of Real Estate Loans (hereinafter referred to as the Notice), clarifying that banking financial institutions should increase their support for affordable rental housing.
Increase support for affordable rental housing.
In order to implement the decision of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on supporting the development of affordable rental housing, on the afternoon of February 8, the People's Bank of China and the Insurance Regulatory Commission of Bank of China issued relevant notices. Article 1 reads, "As of the date of issuance of this circular, the related loans issued by banking financial institutions to affordable rental housing projects with the certificate of affordable rental housing projects are not included in the centralized management of real estate loans."
The notice made it clear that banking financial institutions should increase their support for affordable rental housing and provide financial products and services in accordance with the principles of legal compliance, controllable risks and sustainable business.
The reporter of China Times consulted the Notice and learned that the Notice is applicable to banking financial institutions that mainly implement the centralized management system of real estate loans. It also requires banking financial institutions to strictly implement the relevant statistical systems of the People's Bank of China and the China Banking Regulatory Commission to ensure that the data are true and accurate.
In fact, affordable rental housing, as one of the important graspers of "living without speculation", has also become a major focus of real estate regulation in many places.
For example, on June 6, 2022, at the Fifth Session of the 15th Beijing Municipal People's Congress, Chen Jining, Mayor of Beijing mentioned in his government work report that he insisted on "housing without speculation". Maintain the continuity and stability of real estate control policies, do a good job in ensuring the supply of housing land, raise10.5 million sets of affordable rental housing, and complete the construction of 80,000 sets of various types of affordable housing.
Promote a virtuous circle of the real estate industry
It is noteworthy that the central bank also mentioned that the introduction of this centralized management policy supports the construction of China's housing security system and helps to promote the establishment of a housing system with multi-agent supply, multi-channel security and rent-and-purchase.
Xu Xiaole, chief market analyst of RealData, analyzed in an interview with the reporter of China Times that due to the previous mine explosion, enterprises generally lacked collateral, ABS issuance was strictly approved, and it was difficult for existing financing channels to provide sufficient financial support for housing leasing enterprises. Previously, affordable rental housing has been included in the REITs pilot. This notice clearly requires banking financial institutions to increase financial support for affordable rental housing, which will open up financing channels for banking financial institutions and broaden financing channels for affordable rental housing again.
Guan Rongxue, an analyst at Zhuge Housing Search Data Research Center, also told the reporter of China Times that this notice increased the credit supply of affordable rental housing, which not only met people's reasonable housing needs to a certain extent, but also profoundly implemented the goal of living and living, effectively solved the housing and housing difficulties of some difficult groups, alleviated the pressure on housing funds to a certain extent, and further promoted the virtuous circle and healthy development of the real estate industry.
In Xu Xiaole's view, this notice is expected to solve the problems of narrow financing scope and high financing cost generally faced by affordable rental housing, and is also conducive to stabilizing funds for enterprises involved in housing security construction.
Xu Xiaole told the reporter of China Times that the first half of 2022 is still at the peak of the debt maturity of housing enterprises, and the financial pressure faced by housing enterprises is still relatively large. Due to the long payback period of investment in the development and construction of affordable rental housing and the relatively low profit return, it is beneficial for housing enterprises to actively participate in the construction of affordable housing, ensure the stability of cash flow and establish a virtuous circle of capital and operation of housing enterprises.
Lu Wenxi, chief market analyst of Shanghai Zhongyuan Real Estate Consultant Co., Ltd. also told the reporter of China Times that this year is a year of rapid development of affordable rental housing. Under the supervision and guarantee of funds or finance, it is expected to play a stable role in boosting the demand for affordable rental housing and the performance of housing prices in various cities.
It is noteworthy that the reporter of China Times also learned that in the next step, the People's Bank of China and the China Banking Regulatory Commission will speed up the establishment and improvement of the housing rental financial system, continue to increase financial support for the construction of affordable housing and the development of the long-term rental market, and promote the virtuous circle and healthy development of the real estate industry.