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The city of Suzhou, a high-tech hub in East China’s Jiangsu province, has relaxed home purchase restrictions for non-local residents, those without local Hukou, reported Chinese news outlet The 21st Century Business Herald on Wednesday, citing people working for the local housing authority and local property brokerages.
Non-local residents will no longer be required to provide record of local social security contribution or local personal income tax when they buy their first homes in the city’s six major districts including Gusu, Wuzhong, Xiangcheng, New & Hi-tech, Industrial Park and Wujiang, according to the report.
Other mainland news outlets including Yicai also confirmed the news citing local officials.
Last month, Taicang and Kunshan, two county-level cities under the jurisdiction of Suzhou, first eased restrictions for non-locals’ purchases of first homes, removing the requirements for records of local social security contribution or local personal income tax payment. After the latest relaxation, restrictions on non-locals’ first-home purchases have actually been removed in all parts under jurisdiction of Suzhou.
In the past five months, Suzhou relaxed real estate policies for several times, easing restrictions on home purchases, home resales, home mortgage loans, etc.
In April this year, Suzhou reduced the time intervals between second-hand home purchases and resales of the properties to three years from previous five years and also raised the maximum amount homebuyers can borrow from the Housing Provident Fund. In May, the city removed the restrictions on time intervals for second-hand home resales and shortened the period for new homes to two years from previous three years. Meanwhile, non-local home buyers were required to provide six-month record of local social security contribution, compared to previous 24 months. In August, Suzhou adjusted rule to make it easier to be recognized as first-time home buyers so as to enjoy lower downpayment ratio.
In addition, the average mortgage rates for first-time home buyers is currently at 4.1%, the lowest level on record, according to local brokerages. However, the policy easing has so far failed to lift the local housing market.
The city new home market posted a notable recovery in June, with new home sales surging more than 50% from the previous month after the Covid outbreaks in the region eased, but transactions tumbled by 37% in July from the month before due to seasonal factors and the impact of the nationwide home mortgage boycott which hit market confidence. Transactions declined further in August month on month, though at a slower pace, according to the China Real Estate Information Corporation.
Average new home prices stood at 24,600 yuan per square meter in August, sliding by about 6% from a year earlier and falling by the similar margin from the month before, showed the data.
During the three-day Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, new home transactions by floor area in Suzhou reached about 10,000 square meters, sliding by more than 25% from the same holiday last year, according to China Index Academy, one of leading independent real estate research firms in the country.
In addition to new home price cuts by property developers for faster cash collections, second-hand home prices in the city also declined.
Driven by the relaxation on home resales, the city’s second-hand home listings has increased significantly and the average listing prices declined by nearly 2,000 yuan per square meters from the same period last year, according to the CRIC.