China's Beijing further relaxes home-buying curbs in property boost bid

[BEIJING] Beijing’s municipal authorities announced on Friday (Aug 7) further measures to relax home-buying curbs as they try to prop up flailing home prices in the Chinese capital.

China’s housing market slump, now in its fifth year, has been constraining household consumption and exacerbating the economy’s imbalance between strong industrial supply and weak domestic demand, making it a continued key focus point for authorities.

At its peak, China’s property market accounted for a quarter of the world’s second-largest economy, but it has been struggling with a debt crisis since mid-2021.

Beijing’s municipal commission of housing and urban-rural development said that, as at Aug 8, it would cut insurance or income tax payment requirements for non-Beijing families to buy homes within the Fifth Ring Road, a major expressway around the central area, which had been exempt from previous loosening measures.

The announcement means that non-local residents – those without a Beijing “hukou” – can now buy homes across the capital if they have made consecutive income tax payments or social insurance in the city for at least a year, down from two years previously.

The announcement included higher caps on housing provident fund loans – raising the maximum for single contributors to 1.2 million yuan (US$178,000) for a first home and 2.4 million yuan for dual-income households, with further top-ups of up to 600,000 and one million yuan available for buyers in outer districts, green-certified housing, or families with two or more children. REUTERS