Housing with a construction area greater than 144 square meters (inclusive) will no longer be subject to “priority for basic needs” during the lottery selection process, while housing with a construction area less than 144 square meters will be subject to “priority for basic needs” according to the original rules.
On May 9th, Xi’an, Shaanxi Province announced the comprehensive cancellation of housing purchase restrictions, which attracted attention. On the 10th, the Housing and Urban Rural Development Bureau of Xi’an City further elaborated on the relevant policy details:
1. What changes have been made to the housing purchase restriction policy?
Fully lift housing purchase restrictions in Xi’an city
2. What are the changes in the rules for registering purchase intentions and conducting notarized lottery selection?
To ensure the fairness and transparency of housing sales, the areas where housing purchase registration and notarization lottery are implemented in Xi’an remain unchanged. Based on the actual market situation, some processes and regulations have been optimized and adjusted. After the issuance of the Notice, there are three adjustments to the projects that carry out housing intention registration: first, when selling commercial housing projects,
3. Why does it support synchronous sales of parking spaces and residential properties, as well as synchronous disclosure of sales prices and sales plans?
Parking spaces are important supporting facilities for people’s living. Simultaneously disclosing parking space prices and related sales information when purchasing a house is an important measure for Xi’an to continuously promote transparency in the sale of commercial housing, which is beneficial for the public to consider comprehensively when choosing commercial housing. In the specific implementation, the real estate development enterprise shall publish information such as the number of parking spaces, prices, and delivery dates corresponding to this batch of housing in the sales announcement issued during the purchase registration.
4. How to understand allowing enterprises, institutions, and social entities to purchase housing?
Given the current balance and stability of housing supply and demand, and in response to the actual needs of units purchasing housing as employee dormitories, and without affecting the priority purchase rights of residents, the Notice clearly states:
5. What measures are there to support financing for real estate enterprises?
According to the requirements of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development, establish and improve the real estate financing coordination mechanism in Xi’an, meet the reasonable financing needs of real estate enterprises of different ownership equally, accelerate the implementation and effectiveness of the real estate financing coordination mechanism, actively provide financial support for compliant real estate projects that meet the “whitelist” requirements, and effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of homebuyers.
6. How to understand that the allocation of land transfer fees for underground parking spaces, civil air defense projects, etc. without considering capacity is not calculated?
In the early stage, real estate development enterprises involved in the allocation of land transfer fees in the cost budgeting and final accounting of various types of real estate, which resulted in inaccurate calculations and could have an impact on the investment and operation of the enterprise. Notice
7. How to promote the exchange of old for new housing and encourage brokerage firms to reasonably reduce costs?
In order to better meet the needs of residents for buying new homes, we support real estate enterprises, brokerage institutions, and financial institutions to collaborate and sign agreements with residents who are engaged in “selling old to buy new” activities. Real estate development companies set a “termination protection period” for their intended properties, and intermediary agencies prioritize promoting the sale of old houses by homebuyers to shorten the selling cycle. If the old house is not sold within the agreed period of the agreement, the development enterprise and the replacement person shall terminate the agreement and receive an unconditional refund.
During the event, relevant industry associations will be organized to encourage development enterprises and intermediary agencies to provide preferential schemes in terms of the purchase price of new houses and commission for second-hand house transactions for residents. The “trade in” campaign will be launched on a trial basis, and relevant preferential policies and measures will be continuously improved to promote linkage in the primary and secondary housing market.
8. How to understand that self owned rental housing by enterprises can be converted into commercial housing for listing and trading?
During 2021, a certain proportion (5% to 10%) of the newly sold commercial residential land in some areas of Xi’an City was agreed upon during the bidding process for self owned rental housing by enterprises, with a requirement that the self owned rental housing period should not be less than 10 years. In order to boost the investment confidence of enterprises and improve the liquidity of funds, the Notice specifies that the self owned rental housing agreed upon in the original land transfer contract can be converted into commercial housing for listing and trading upon application by the enterprise and review by the housing and construction and resource planning departments.
9. What are the changes in the down payment ratio of provident fund loans?
The notice clearly states that,
If a household applies for a combination loan to purchase a house, the down payment ratio must meet the requirements of both housing provident fund loans and commercial loans. When the minimum down payment ratio for commercial loans and provident fund loans is different, the higher value is taken to determine the down payment ratio.
10. What preferential policies are available for families with two or more children to use housing provident fund loans to purchase a house?
The Notice specifies that for families with multiple children who use provident fund loans to purchase housing, the maximum loan amount will be increased to 1.2 times based on the current credit policy. Namely
The multi child family to which this policy applies refers to a family with a legal marital relationship and at least one minor child being raised in accordance with the law; For those with a history of divorce and marriage, the number of children shall be determined based on custody. For families with multiple children who need to increase the amount of provident fund loans, they should provide materials that can prove their fertility or legal upbringing relationship, such as household registration books, birth medical certificates, adoption registration certificates, court judgments, or divorce agreements.
11. What are the changes in the loan terms for applying for housing provident fund loans to purchase second-hand housing?
The Notice specifies that for those who apply for housing provident fund loans to purchase second-hand housing, the construction period of the house shall not exceed 30 years, and the sum of the loan term and the construction period of the house shall be extended to no more than 40 years. Please note the following: 1. The construction period of the house shall be determined based on the highest value from the mapping time of the real estate certificate (property certificate) or the construction time of the house to the loan application time in the evaluation report. 2. Houses built for more than 30 years will not be accepted. 3. For houses with a construction period not exceeding 30 years, the maximum loan term is 40 years – the construction period of the house.