① The reporter learned that the China Housing Association recently organized discussions with some housing enterprises to conduct research and exchange on the market and business operations. People from relevant government departments attended the meeting. ② At this meeting, various housing enterprises exchanged views based on their own circumstances and some of the difficulties they have encountered. Some companies talked about the progress of debt conversion, while others mentioned situations such as the implementation of the white list.
Financial Services Association, April 26 (Reporters Li Jie and Wang Haichun) The reporter learned from many people familiar with the matter that the China Housing Association recently organized discussions with some housing enterprises to conduct research and exchanges on the market and business operations. People from relevant government departments attended the meeting.
According to information, during this discussion, in addition to understanding the operation and market transactions of housing enterprises, participants also exchanged and discussed topics such as housing companies' financing needs, debt resolution, progress in the implementation of real estate “white list” financing, affordable rental housing, and corporate suggestions.
“This conference may be a research and exchange between relevant departments and the China Housing Association. It may be that they want to know exactly how the market and enterprises are currently doing after introducing a number of supporting policies.” A person familiar with the matter told reporters.
According to information, at this meeting, various companies exchanged views based on their own circumstances and some of the difficulties they have encountered. Some companies discussed the progress of debt conversion, while others mentioned situations such as the implementation of the white list.
According to the China Financial Supervision and Administration, by the end of March, commercial banks had completed the review of all the first batch of “white list” projects promoted by the coordination mechanism. Of these, the number of approved projects exceeded 2,100, and the total amount was over 520 billion yuan.
People familiar with the matter said that the urban real estate financing coordination mechanism is a very forward-looking and innovative move. It has played a positive role in opening up financing blockages, and the industry also has many expectations; however, judging from the limited information we have learned so far, many enterprise whitelist projects have been shortlisted, but financial institutions may still have some room to improve the efficiency of actual implementation due to their own risk control and other factors involving cross-departmental factors.
“Through exchanges with peers, I discovered that although many projects have entered the white list, they have also received relevant quota support; however, the specific implementation still needs to go through a corresponding approval process, so there is still a certain gap between current projects that can actually receive funding and actual needs.” A person familiar with the matter told reporters.
Another person familiar with the matter also told the reporter that currently the company has selected nearly 100 projects on the white list, but the number of projects that have received relevant financing support is not high.
Regarding the relevant departments calling housing enterprises to a meeting, people familiar with the matter said that after the relevant departments introduced a number of supporting policies, judging from the current market trend, the real estate market has not improved significantly yet, and the volume of commercial housing transactions is still declining. “Through communication with housing enterprises, everyone is also speculating whether the relevant departments want to use this to understand the situation of housing enterprises from the front line and do some basic work through research.”
In terms of transactions, according to the basic situation of the national real estate market from January to March 2024 released by the National Bureau of Statistics on April 16, the sales area of newly built commercial housing nationwide in the first quarter was 230 million square meters, down 19.4% year on year; investment in real estate development fell 9.5% year on year. In terms of housing enterprise sales, according to statistics from the China Index Research Institute, from January to March 2024, the total sales of TOP100 housing enterprises was 897.83 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of more than 40%.
Since the real estate market has not improved significantly, various favorable real estate policies have continued to be introduced since April.
On April 19, the State Financial Supervision and Administration issued a document emphasizing that it will promote active and steady resolution of real estate risks and provide effective financial support to accelerate the construction of a new model for real estate development. At the local level, policies in more than 10 cities have been relaxed. The demand side mainly involves easing purchase restrictions, easing provident fund loans, and issuing housing purchase subsidies.
Furthermore, according to reports, Lam Chun-hung, head of UBS's real estate research departments in mainland China and Hong Kong, said that the domestic housing market is expected to gradually recover as the mainland government has introduced boosting measures. It is expected that domestic housing stock prices with large-scale projects in 21 major cities are expected to rebound, so some stock ratings have been raised accordingly earlier.
Meanwhile, on April 26, Hong Kong domestic housing stocks and real estate A shares all fluctuated and picked up.
According to Wind data, 97 shares of real estate A shares rose in price on April 26. Among them, I Love My Family, Nanguo Real Estate, Binjiang Group, and Daming City rose and stopped; Poly Development rose 8%, China Merchants Shekou rose 7.26%, Xincheng Holdings rose 6.18%, Goldland Group rose 5.94%, Urban Construction Development rose 5.67%, initial shares rose 5.63%, Vanke A rose 4.89%, and Greenland Holdings rose 4.14%.
In terms of domestic housing stocks in Hong Kong, Sunac China rose 17.35%, Xuhui Holdings and Ocean Group rose 13.46%, Hejing Youhuo rose 12.7%, Greentown China rose 12.36%, Evergrande Property, Hejing Taifu, Zhengrong Real Estate, Longhu Group, Baolong Real Estate, and Zhongliang Holdings rose more than 10%. Xincheng Development, Times China, Longguang Group, and Xinchengyue Service increased by 9%-10%.