Following signals from the Central Politburo meeting to "strive for a stable real estate market," cities including Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Tianjin have taken the lead in implementing a series of optimized property market policies.
On April 29, the Shenzhen Municipal Housing and Construction Bureau was the first to introduce new measures, effective the following day, which further ease home purchase restrictions in core urban areas. Within the districts of Futian, Nanshan, and the Xin'an Subdistrict of Bao'an District, local resident families can now purchase up to three commodity homes. Non-local resident families who have continuously paid social insurance or individual income tax in the city for at least one year prior to the purchase date are eligible to buy up to two homes. Additionally, families holding a residence permit can purchase one home in the specified areas without needing to provide social insurance records.
Simultaneously, housing provident fund policies were enhanced. The maximum individual loan amount was increased from 600,000 yuan to 700,000 yuan, while the family loan limit rose from 1.1 million yuan to 1.3 million yuan. When combined with benefits for first-time home purchases, first marriages and first births, and multi-child families, the maximum provident fund loan for a family can reach 3.51 million yuan.
Following Shenzhen's lead, Guangzhou released its property market implementation opinions on April 30, effective immediately. The new policy aims to reduce burdens on the demand side while improving quality on the supply side. On one hand, it optimizes the housing provident fund policy by raising the maximum loan amount to 3.6 million yuan and introduces a special subsidy of up to 30,000 yuan per unit for those selling old homes to buy new ones, facilitating the exchange between primary and secondary housing markets. On the other hand, it adheres to a "demand-determined supply" approach to balance supply and demand from the source, stating that commodity residential land will not be concentrated for sale within the same planning unit within the year. The policy also supports the acquisition of existing commodity homes for use as resettlement housing during urban village redevelopment and encourages the purchase of existing commercial and office properties for operational use as replacement properties. It further promotes the compliant conversion of existing commercial and office properties for uses such as medical, educational, elderly care, hotel, wellness, and affordable housing purposes, tailored to local conditions.
On the same day, the Tianjin Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Commission, along with 10 other departments, issued a notice focusing on revitalizing existing housing stock and promoting housing consumption. The notice prioritizes the acquisition of eligible existing commodity homes for use as affordable or resettlement housing and utilizes special bond funds to repurchase idle land. It implements tax policies related to residents exchanging homes, allowing for a refund of individual income tax paid on the sale of a self-owned home if a new home is purchased within one year during 2026-2027. Additionally, it encourages districts to provide home purchase or rental subsidies for various groups, including talents, new citizens, young people, and recent university graduates.
Industry insiders view this concentrated rollout of new policies in key cities as an implementation of the recent Central Politburo directive to "strive for a stable real estate market."
On April 28, the Central Politburo convened a meeting to analyze the current economic situation and work. It explicitly called for efforts to stabilize the real estate market. Analysis by the China Index Academy noted that the previous mention of "real estate" in a Central Politburo meeting was in April 2025. A year later, the term reappeared in the context of "effectively preventing and resolving risks in key areas," highlighting the sector's importance and indicating that mitigating real estate risks remains a priority.
In terms of market performance, national sales area for new commodity homes in the first quarter fell by 10.4% year-on-year, while sales value dropped by 16.7%. Although the rate of decline narrowed compared to the January-February period, and marginal improvements in market sales emerged in March, the current recovery remains fragmented, with a still fragile foundation for stabilization.
Beyond the concerted efforts in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Tianjin, housing provident fund policies nationwide are undergoing a new wave of intensive optimization, serving as a key tool for local governments to implement the central government's directive to stabilize the property market. According to incomplete statistics from the China Index Academy, from the beginning of 2026 up to April 26, over 150 housing provident fund-related policies have been introduced across the country, making it the most frequently optimized policy area. Since April alone, over 60 such policies have been announced, exceeding the total for the entire month of March, indicating accelerated implementation.
The optimization directions of these local provident fund policies vary. Fuzhou now explicitly supports the withdrawal of provident funds to pay for the decoration of self-owned homes, optimizes withdrawals for purchasing parking spaces, and relaxes conditions for withdrawals to build, renovate, or overhaul self-owned homes. Gansu province has included property management fees, heating fees, water and electricity charges, gas fees, parking fees, and other housing-related expenses as eligible for fund withdrawal, and supports using provident funds to pay property purchase taxes. Qingdao supports withdrawals for property management fees, housing deed taxes, and residential special maintenance funds, relaxes the scope for withdrawing funds for down payments and mortgage repayments, and increases the rental withdrawal limit. Jinan supports withdrawals for property fees, heating costs, deed taxes, and maintenance funds, offers temporary support for withdrawing funds to purchase parking spaces and storage rooms, supports the rental needs of flexible workers, and optimizes housing loan withdrawal and family-assisted withdrawal policies.
Yan Yuejin, Vice President of the Shanghai E-House Real Estate Research Institute, believes that the response speed of key cities' policies has significantly accelerated before the May Day holiday, with many areas intensively introducing new property measures. This is a positive response to the call for stabilizing the real estate market. The key to stabilizing the market lies in the organic combination of existing policies and new incremental policies. Only when policy execution forms a concerted effort can the current sporadic recovery be gradually guided towards a broader stabilization, promoting an active and vibrant property transaction market in the second quarter.