"Shanghai Six Measures" Ignite Real Estate Sector as 15-Year Housing Purchase Restrictions Gradually Fade

Deep News
Yesterday

With the support of new policies, the real estate market's "Golden September and Silver October" looks promising.

Following Shanghai's release of new real estate policies including the relaxation of purchase restrictions, real estate listed companies including China Vanke Co.,Ltd. (000002.SZ) collectively rose on August 25.

The Shanghai Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Management Committee, Municipal Housing Management Bureau, and four other departments jointly issued the "Notice on Optimizing and Adjusting Real Estate Policy Measures in the City" (referred to as "Shanghai Six Measures"), covering six adjustments including housing purchase restrictions, provident fund, housing credit, and housing taxation. The new policies take effect from August 26, 2025.

A week earlier (August 18), the ninth plenary meeting of the State Council required taking strong measures to consolidate the real estate market's trend of stopping decline and stabilizing, combining urban renewal to promote urban village and dilapidated housing renovation, and releasing improved housing demand through multiple approaches.

Yan Yuejin, Vice President of Shanghai E-house Real Estate Research Institute, told reporters that the housing purchase restrictions introduced in 2010 are gradually fading out. However, whether in Beijing or Shanghai, there are still certain social insurance requirements for residents' home purchase qualifications, indicating that current policies still serve the reasonable housing needs of people working and living locally.

So far, among the four first-tier cities, Guangzhou has completely canceled purchase restrictions, while Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen are continuously relaxing their purchase restriction policies. Many industry insiders interviewed believe that with the support of new policies, the real estate market's "Golden September and Silver October" looks promising.

**Single Persons' Home Purchase Qualifications Equal to Families**

The introduction of "Shanghai Six Measures" will promote scenarios such as single persons purchasing homes and residents buying homes outside the Outer Ring.

First, regarding purchase restriction policy adjustments, "Shanghai Six Measures" clarifies that Shanghai household registration families and non-Shanghai household registration families who have continuously paid social insurance or individual income tax in Shanghai for one year or more can purchase unlimited housing units outside the Outer Ring; adult single persons are subject to the same housing purchase restriction policies as resident families.

Shanghai household registration families and Shanghai household registration adult single persons, although not limited in purchasing housing outside the Outer Ring, are limited to purchasing 2 housing units within the Outer Ring. Non-Shanghai household registration families and non-Shanghai household registration adult single persons who have continuously paid social insurance or individual income tax in Shanghai for three years or more before the purchase date are limited to purchasing 1 housing unit within the Outer Ring.

Housing provident fund policies have also been further optimized. "Shanghai Six Measures" increased individual housing provident fund loan limits. For depositors purchasing two-star or above newly built green building housing, the maximum housing provident fund loan amount is increased by 15%. The maximum loan amount for first homes increased from 1.6 million yuan to 1.84 million yuan, and for multi-child families, the first home increase ratio can be calculated cumulatively, rising from 1.92 million yuan to 2.16 million yuan; the maximum loan amount for second homes increased from 1.3 million yuan to 1.495 million yuan.

Notably, this policy explicitly supports withdrawing housing provident fund to pay home purchase down payments. Depositors purchasing newly built pre-sale commercial housing in Shanghai can apply to withdraw their own and their spouse's housing provident fund to pay the home purchase down payment according to regulations.

The commercial personal housing loan interest rate pricing mechanism has also been optimized and adjusted. "Shanghai Six Measures" clarifies the optimization of personal housing credit policies. Banking financial institutions, according to Shanghai's market interest rate pricing self-discipline mechanism requirements and their own operating conditions, customer risk conditions and other factors, no longer distinguish between first and second home purchases in interest rate pricing mechanism arrangements, reasonably determining the specific interest rate level for each commercial personal housing loan. Residents' housing interest burden is expected to be further reduced.

Personal housing property tax policies will also be improved accordingly. "Shanghai Six Measures" stipulates that qualified non-Shanghai household registration families' first home purchases are temporarily exempt from property tax; for second and subsequent home purchases, after combining and calculating all family housing areas, a per capita 60 square meters tax-free area deduction is provided.

**Increased Probability of Shenzhen Following Up**

Besides Shanghai, among the four first-tier cities, Guangzhou has completely canceled purchase restrictions, while Beijing and Shenzhen are continuously optimizing their original purchase restriction policies.

Last September, Guangzhou issued the "Notice on Adjusting Measures for Stable and Healthy Development of Our City's Real Estate Market," clarifying that Guangzhou household registration and non-household registration families and single persons purchasing housing citywide no longer need purchase qualification review and no longer have purchase quantity restrictions. In June this year, Guangzhou Municipal Commerce Bureau issued a notice seeking public opinions on the "Guangzhou City Consumption Promotion Special Action Implementation Plan (Draft for Comments)," which mentioned optimizing real estate policies, completely canceling purchase restrictions, sales restrictions, and price restrictions, and reducing loan down payment ratios and interest rates.

Also last September, Shenzhen optimized its zoned purchase restriction policies. Shenzhen household registration families can purchase one more home in non-core areas, while non-Shenzhen household registration families purchasing homes in non-core areas had their social insurance or individual tax period requirements canceled, meaning Shenzhen's non-core areas have completely lifted purchase restrictions.

On August 8 this year, Beijing introduced new real estate policies clarifying that qualified families are no longer restricted in the number of homes they can purchase outside the Fifth Ring Road. Qualified families here refer to Beijing household registration families or non-Beijing household registration families who have continuously paid social insurance or individual income tax in Beijing for two years or more. Additionally, Beijing's new real estate policies increased housing provident fund support for home purchases.

China Index Academy believes Shanghai's new real estate policies respond to Beijing's implemented policies. Qualified families purchasing unlimited homes outside the Outer Ring is basically consistent with Beijing's policies; optimizing multiple provident fund policies follows similar optimization ideas to Beijing. However, Shanghai further reduces residents' home purchase costs, clarifying no distinction between first and second home commercial loan rates, and improving property tax policies, with overall strength slightly greater than Beijing and broader policy scope.

Real estate research institution CRIC believes that following Beijing's adjustment of real estate policies at the beginning of the month, Shanghai's policy adjustments overall meet market expectations but exceed expectations compared to Beijing in terms of strength, playing a significant role in alleviating current transaction pressure in the outer ring market.

Yan Yuejin told reporters that current purchase restriction policies in Beijing and Shanghai, in simple terms, mean "locals can buy unlimited suburban homes, while outsiders buying suburban homes need two years of social insurance in Beijing and only one year in Shanghai, also unlimited."

China Index Academy stated that with Beijing and Shanghai successively optimizing real estate policies, the probability of Shenzhen following up in the short term has increased, helping boost market expectations and promote "stopping decline and stabilizing."

**15-Year "Purchase Restrictions" Gradually Fading**

The history of real estate "purchase restrictions" dates back 15 years.

On April 30, 2010, Beijing issued the "Notice on Implementing the State Council Document on Resolutely Curbing Excessively Fast Housing Price Growth in Some Cities," proposing that the same home-buying family can only purchase one new commercial housing unit in Beijing. This was the nation's first housing "purchase restriction order."

Shanghai issued "Shanghai Twelve Measures" on October 7, 2010, first proposing in Shanghai's residential market development history "temporarily implementing policies limiting the number of housing units resident families can purchase," stipulating that Shanghai and other provincial and municipal resident families can only purchase one new commercial housing unit (including second-hand existing housing) in Shanghai.

Subsequently, as real estate market conditions continued to change, purchase restriction policies have been constantly adjusted. For example: in 2011, Shanghai household registration families were limited to purchasing 2 homes; in 2012, non-Shanghai household registration single persons were restricted from purchasing homes; from 2011 to 2016, social insurance requirements for non-Shanghai household registration families increased from 1 year, 2 years to 5 years; from 2019, in areas such as Lingang New Area, Jinshan District, and five new cities, purchase restriction requirements for single persons and non-Shanghai household registration families were gradually reduced.

Since last year, from central to local levels, real estate loosening policies have intensively increased, with multiple core second-tier cities such as Nanjing, Hangzhou, Zhuhai, and Tianjin completely canceling purchase restrictions. First-tier city Guangzhou also announced no longer restricting the number of home purchases citywide. Thus, real estate "purchase restriction orders" gradually fade from the historical stage.

By the end of October last year, only Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and parts of Hainan still implemented purchase restrictions. Currently, these four places have not completely lifted purchase restrictions, but Beijing and Shanghai have successively introduced new policies to continue relaxing purchase restrictions, proving policies are still being continuously optimized.

**China Vanke Co.,Ltd. Leads Real Estate Stock "Counterattack"**

With the release of "Shanghai Six Measures," A-share and H-share real estate sectors welcomed broad gains on August 25.

As of the close, in A-shares, Vantone Neo Development Group Co.,Ltd. (600246.SH) hit the daily limit, China Vanke Co.,Ltd. (000002.SZ) and Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Real Estate&Properties(Group)Co.,Ltd. (000029.SZ) rose over 9%, Risesun Real Estate Development Co.,Ltd. (002146.SZ) and Gemdale Corporation (600383.SH) rose over 6%, Greenland Holdings Corporation Limited (600606.SH), Poly Developments And Holdings Group Co.,Ltd. (600048.SH), and Zhuhai Huafa Properties Co.,Ltd. (600325.SH) rose over 4%.

In Hong Kong stocks, CHINA VANKE (02202.HK) rose 9.86%, SUNAC (01918.HK) rose over 6%, LONGFOR GROUP (00960.HK) and NEW WORLD DEV (00017.HK) rose over 5%, R&F PROPERTIES (02777.HK) and YUEXIU PROPERTY (00123.HK) all broke through 4% gains.

Industry insiders interviewed stated that since July, Beijing's new home and second-hand home markets have shown signs of weakening. This policy implementation will further boost market expectations, drive improved market activity, and further promote local real estate market stabilization.

Meanwhile, the market is also expecting other cities to follow up with more real estate support policies. Chen Wenjing, Policy Research Director at China Index Academy, stated that the ninth plenary meeting of the State Council held on August 18 further clarified that "stopping decline and stabilizing" remains the policy goal for real estate, while requiring "systematic clearing of restrictive measures in the consumption sector," indicating that restrictive measures for housing consumption may be further adjusted and optimized in the future. "It is expected that the central level also has space for further policy efforts, and a new round of support policies may be launched."

From a company fundamentals perspective, China Vanke Co.,Ltd.'s latest financial report released on August 22 showed that in the first half of this year, the company achieved operating revenue of 105.32 billion yuan and a net loss attributable to listed company shareholders of 11.95 billion yuan. Regarding debt repayment issues of extreme concern to the outside world, China Vanke Co.,Ltd. disclosed that as of the report disclosure date, the company has successfully completed 24.39 billion yuan in public debt repayment, with no overseas public debt maturing before 2027.

Meanwhile, China Vanke Co.,Ltd. secured new financing and refinancing of 24.9 billion yuan in the first half of this year, plus liquidity support from its largest shareholder Shenzhen Metro Group, which has provided a cumulative 23.88 billion yuan in shareholder loans to date. China Vanke Co.,Ltd. stated it is steadily advancing reform and risk resolution work, gradually digesting risks.

A research report pointed out that China Vanke Co.,Ltd. has no overseas public debt maturing before 2027, with domestic debt totaling approximately 26.4 billion yuan, of which approximately 7.7 billion yuan matures in the second half of 2025. This year's debt repayment peak has safely passed more than half, and with policy and state-owned capital assistance, it is expected to transition smoothly.

Disclaimer: Investing carries risk. This is not financial advice. The above content should not be regarded as an offer, recommendation, or solicitation on acquiring or disposing of any financial products, any associated discussions, comments, or posts by author or other users should not be considered as such either. It is solely for general information purpose only, which does not consider your own investment objectives, financial situations or needs. TTM assumes no responsibility or warranty for the accuracy and completeness of the information, investors should do their own research and may seek professional advice before investing.

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