Foshan, Guangdong: Home buyers can enter households, and residential apartments follow the price standards for civil water and electricity

Non registered residence persons who hold their own legal property right residential houses in Foshan can apply for household registration in the place where the houses are located, and their spouses and minor children who live together can move with them.

On May 13th, the Housing and Urban Rural Development Bureau of Foshan City and nine other departments issued a notice on several measures to continuously promote the stable and healthy development of the real estate market.

It is mentioned that the policy of relaxing home purchase and household registration will be relaxed. Non registered residence persons who hold their own legal property right residential houses in Foshan can apply for household registration in the place where the houses are located, and their spouses and minor children who live together can move with them. For residential properties such as commercial apartments in Foshan that are used for residential purposes, the water, electricity, and gas prices for residential use shall be implemented.

Issued by nine departments including the Housing and Urban Rural Development Bureau of Foshan City

On Continuously Promoting the Stable and Healthy Real Estate Market

Notice on Several Measures for Development

To the people’s governments and relevant units of each district:

To implement the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, accelerate the construction of a new model for real estate development, promote high-quality real estate development, and better meet the new expectations of the people for high-quality housing. Based on the current situation in our city and with the consent of the Municipal Party Committee and Government, we hereby notify the following matters:

1、 Optimize land supply management

Land supply shall be coordinated at the city level, timely release of residential land supply information, and stabilize market expectations. Adhere to clean land transfer, good land transfer, and pure land transfer. Adhere to market demand orientation, reasonably determine the area of individual land parcels for sale, and prioritize the supply of high-quality land parcels. Taking into account the actual needs of the project and the surrounding commercial facilities, reasonable planning conditions are set to ensure the supply of land for pure residential projects.

2、 Moderate optimization of residential land allocation requirements

Except for the supporting public service facilities such as green spaces, roads, elderly care and childcare, kindergartens, etc. that need to be built within the land parcel as specified by laws and regulations and detailed control planning, no other supporting construction requirements can be set for the newly sold residential land. According to the planning requirements, the local government will prioritize the construction of supporting public service facilities such as schools and hospitals in areas with relatively concentrated land to be sold, and vigorously increase high-quality compulsory education and medical resources.

3、 Optimize the calculation rules for plot ratio

Encourage and support enterprises to develop diversified and high-quality residential products. The upper limit of the “half” capacity area of the balcony inside the residential unit for newly sold residential land has been increased from 18% of the building area inside the unit to 20%; Cancel the depth and area restrictions on individual balconies; Cancel the requirement that the height difference between the protruding (floating) window sill and the ground should be less than 0.45 meters, which requires capacity calculation. When issuing planning conditions, reserve a certain degree of flexibility for the subsequent preparation of building schemes.

4、 Implement installment payment of land transfer price

For real estate development projects that pay the land transfer price in installments, the transferee can apply for development application procedures such as construction land planning permit, construction project planning permit, and construction project construction permit after signing the State owned Construction Land Use Right Transfer Contract and paying 50% of the transfer price. After paying the remaining 50% of the transfer price, apply for the land use right certificate and the pre-sale permit for commercial housing.

5、 Adjusting the accounting rules for breach of contract liability for construction and completion

The penalty for breach of contract for newly sold real estate development projects has been reduced from 0.3% per day to 0.5% per day. When calculating the liability for breach of contract upon completion, the penalty shall be calculated based on the proportion of the delayed construction area to the total construction area. Real estate development projects that have been sold shall be subject to the penalty standards for commencement and completion in accordance with these rules from the date of issuance of this measure (including the same day). If the project cannot be started and completed on schedule due to force majeure, an application can be made to extend the start and completion time.

6、 Expand the coverage of guarantees

Allow bank guarantees that are payable on demand as land bid security. Allow enterprises to issue a land purchase commitment letter with their own funds to replace the land purchase fund review report. Allow enterprises to replace pre-sale supervision funds for commercial housing with cash guarantees in equal amounts.

7、 Accurately meeting project financing needs

According to the principles of marketization and rule of law, we will increase financing arrangements and support for the “whitelist” projects of the city’s real estate financing coordination mechanism. Support the application for new real estate development projects to be included in the “whitelist”. For projects on the “whitelist” that have already covered the overall completion cost of the newly added financing, they can apply for the release of equal amounts of pre-sale regulatory funds specifically for repaying the interest of the newly added financing capital at each node. If local state-owned enterprises purchase and promote the construction of high-risk projects for guaranteed delivery of housing in an appropriate manner, they will increase their financing support and may include them in the renovation and replacement of urban villages and affordable housing.

8、 Reasonably optimizing the tax payment mechanism of enterprises

The tax department scientifically evaluates the financial pressure of enterprises based on their real estate investment situation. For those who meet the conditions for deferred tax payment, the tax payment deadline can be extended with approval. When signing land transfer contracts, the natural resources department clarifies the prices of land use rights corresponding to different uses of real estate land that is compatible with urban residential and commercial services, providing a basis for enterprises to calculate and pay relevant taxes and fees.

9、 Encourage and support the “trade in” of housing

Support real estate development enterprises, intermediary agencies, and homebuyers to jointly carry out “old for new” activities, and encourage real estate enterprises to carry out activities of replacing existing properties with new ones. Support local state-owned enterprises to participate in the “trade in old for new” activity, and increase financing support for the acquisition of market stock properties for affordable housing, rental housing, talent housing, etc. From January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2025, taxpayers who sell their own homes and purchase new homes in the market within one year after the sale of their current homes will be eligible for a tax refund on the personal income tax already paid on the sale of their current homes.

10、 Increase support for housing purchase through provident fund loans

Increase the calculation multiple of the housing provident fund deposit balance and overall increase the available loan amount for housing provident fund loans. Promote the transfer of second-hand housing transactions with collateral for housing provident fund loans. Employees who purchase newly-built commercial housing in this city through personal housing commercial loans or personal housing provident fund loans can apply for the withdrawal of provident fund to pay the down payment for purchasing a house.

11、 Implement a dynamic adjustment mechanism for the interest rate of first-time housing loans

Implement a phased cancellation of the lower limit policy for commercial personal housing loan interest rates for the first commercial housing in our city. The specific interest rate level is determined through independent negotiation between commercial banks and borrowers.

12、 Relax the policy of purchasing and entering households

Non registered residence persons who hold their own legal property rights in our city can apply for household registration in the place where the house is located. Spouses and minor children who live together can move with them.

13、 Residential apartments comply with the price standards for civil water and electricity

For residential properties such as commercial apartments in our city that are used for residential purposes, the water, electricity, and gas prices for residential use shall be implemented.

The above measures shall be implemented from the date of issuance. The Municipal Housing and Urban Rural Development Bureau will take the lead in explaining, and relevant departments will separately formulate implementation rules.

Foshan Housing and Urban Rural Development Bureau

Foshan Natural Resources Bureau

Foshan Development and Reform Bureau

Foshan Public Security Bureau

Foshan Municipal Government Service and Data Management Bureau

Foshan Financial Work Bureau

Foshan Housing Provident Fund Management Center

State Administration of Taxation Foshan Municipal Taxation Bureau

Foshan Regulatory Branch of the State Administration for Financial Regulation

May 13, 2024