TMTPost -- Beijing, the Chinese capital, joins in all the other China’s first-tier cities’ removing cubrs on home buyers, highlighting China’s intensified efforts to revive the property market.

Credit：Xinhua News Agency

The Beijing municipal government announced easing restrictions on homebuying rules to boost the city's property market, including lowering the threshold on non-locals to buy real estate in the downtown area. Non-Beijing residents will be allowed to purchase homes inside the city's fifth ring road if they have a record of paying social insurance or individual income tax in the city for at least three years -- down from five years as was previously required, according to a circular jointly issued by six municipal departments late Monday.

The new policies to take effect on Tuesday will also lift the housing purchase restrictions in Tongzhou District, where the Beijing Municipal Administrative Center is located, to allow the district's homebuying rules to comply with the city's unified property market policy.

Under the new rules, homebuyers will face less financial pressure, as the minimum down payment ratio for individual commercial mortgages are reduced from 20 percent to 15 percent for first-home purchases, and from 30% to 20% for second homes.

For families with more than two children in Beijing, the amount of housing provident fund loan limit will be raised by 400,000 yuan (about 57,083 U.S. dollars), the circular said.

Beijing’s announcement came a day after Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, three of China’s four first-tier cities, introduced their unprecedented measures to ease restrictions Sunday. The easing measures entail lifting purchase restrictions, reducing down-payment percentages, and lowering mortgage requirements.

Guangzhou has become the first top-tier city to scrap all home purchase qualifications, allowing both local and non-local residents to purchase an unlimited number of homes in the capital of Guangdong province.

In Shanghai, new mortgage requirements have been implemented, along with reduced taxes and fees, starting from Tuesday. The city will now permit non-local residents to buy homes in the outer ring after only one year of social security contributions or personal income tax payments, instead of the previous three years. Additionally, the down payment requirements have been lowered for first-time and second-time homebuyers to 15% and 25%, respectively.

Shenzhen has revised its zone-based housing purchase restrictions, enabling qualified individuals to acquire multiple apartments in non-core areas. The city has also adjusted down payment percentages for first and second homes to 15% and 20%, respectively.

China’s central bank, he People's Bank of China (PBOC), also launched further stimulus to boost the property market. It requested commercial banks to lower interest rates for existing home loans as the country aims to lower financial burdens on property owners. The mortgage rates for first homes, second homes and more are required to be reduced no lower than 30 basis points below the loan prime rate (LPR) by October 31, 2024. In principle, 18 national commercial banks need to release their plans for adjustments before October 12.

In response to the central bank’s request, China's six major national commercial banks have announced plans to adjust mortgage rates for existing home loans in line with the central bank's policies to stabilize the property market.

Detailed measures of the adjustment of mortgage rates for existing home loans will be released on Oct. 12, 2024, according to statements of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, and Postal Savings Bank of China. The statements noted that the adjustment will be implemented by October 31, 2024.