Mini Program: Daily Real Estate Industry News Summary
1. Shanghai: 0.047 million new tenancy units raised for construction in the first half of 2024
On the morning of July 8, Hu Guangjie, secretary of the Shanghai Construction and Transportation Party Committee and director of the Municipal Housing, Urban-Rural Development Management Committee, walked into the summer hotline to answer calls and revealed the latest developments in a number of popular projects and practical livelihood projects: from January to June of this year, Shencheng completed sporadic renovation of 0.066 million square meters, launched 7 “urban village” renovation projects, raised 0.0151 million additional beds, and completed a number of major industrial, hospital, and municipal transportation infrastructure projects. to better respond to the people's yearning for a better life. By the end of June, the city had raised a total of about 0.047 million affordable rental housing units (units), and the supply of about 0.034 million units (units) of affordable housing had been added, all exceeding the annual workload. At the same time, financing for the construction of allotted affordable housing was promoted in an orderly manner.
2. Foshan plans to introduce a policy for withdrawing housing provident funds to pay down payment for home purchases
Recently, the Foshan Housing Provident Fund Management Center issued a notice (consultation draft) on matters relating to withdrawing housing provident funds to pay down payments for housing purchases (hereinafter referred to as the draft for comments). According to the draft for solicitation of comments, the Provident Fund may be used as a down payment for future purchases of housing in Foshan. The draft for solicitation of comments suggests that if an employee or spouse buys newly built commercial housing within the administrative area of Foshan City and uses a housing loan, the employee may apply to withdraw the housing provident fund to pay the down payment for the purchase of the house. The draft for solicitation of comments states that an application should be submitted before filing a commercial housing sales contract, and it can be withdrawn once. The withdrawal amount shall not exceed the down payment amount for the purchase of a home, and the personal housing fund account balance shall not be less than 500 yuan after withdrawal.
3. Yunnan Dehong: Supporting state-owned enterprises to acquire unsold commercial housing and open up key cities in Northeast China and Myanmar's export markets
According to the Yunnan Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture government website on July 9, the Dehong State People's Government Office issued a notice on issuing the “Measures for Optimizing and Adjusting the Real Estate Market Regulation in Dehong Prefecture”. According to the document, to open up key cities in the three northeastern provinces, the western part, and the northwestern part of Myanmar, from July 1, 2024 to December 31, 2025, buyers who buy the first newly built commercial housing with an area of less than 80 square meters from outside the state can enjoy a one-time home purchase subsidy of 80% of the contract tax paid.
4. Beihai, Guangxi: Supporting “offsite mutual loans” for provident funds and supporting first-hand secured transactions and transfers of existing housing
On July 9, the Beihai Municipal Government of Guangxi issued “Certain Optimization Measures to Promote the Stable and Healthy Development of the Real Estate Market in Beihai City”, which aims to support residents' reasonable housing needs and promote the healthy development of the real estate market. The new measures include optimizing the criteria for determining the number of commercial loan units for personal housing, granting first and second certification to families with many children buying two or three housing units, expanding the scope of the home purchase tax subsidy to parking spaces, achieving “mutual recognition and mutual loans” between local and offsite provident funds, and supporting first-hand secured transactions for existing homes. The document also mentioned that it will promote the optimization of land division procedures, simplify the project planning and verification process, relax planning and architectural design forms, optimize planning plan adjustment procedures, and improve the requirements and calculation rules for supporting public service facilities in residential areas. In particular, for construction projects with problems left over from history that cannot be corrected, classification and disposal measures will be adopted. In addition, Beihai City will grant a 100% subsidy of the contract tax amount for individuals who purchase newly owned parking spaces. The policy will be implemented until October 31, 2024. The above measures are aimed at constructing diverse housing product types to meet the needs of different consumers while maintaining market stability.
5. The Ningbo property market policy was adjusted, and the interest rate on personal housing provident fund loans was lowered by 0.25 percentage points
The Ningbo Municipal Housing and Construction Bureau issued a notice to adjust the personal housing provident fund loan policy, extend the housing purchase subsidy policy, etc. according to the criteria for determining the number of personal housing loans. Starting July 9, 2024, the loan amount of an employee's personal housing provident fund will be adjusted from 15 times the balance of the borrower and their co-borrower's deposit account on the day they apply for the loan to 20 times. Interest rates on personal housing provident fund loans were lowered by 0.25 percentage points. Starting July 9, for those purchasing self-occupied housing in Ningbo City, the down payment ratio for the first self-occupied housing unit will not be less than 20%; for those purchasing the second self-occupied housing, the down payment ratio will be no less than 25%.
6. Vanke A: Expected net loss of 7 billion yuan to 9 billion yuan for the first half of 2024
Vanke A announced that it expects a net loss of 7 billion to 9 billion yuan in the first half of 2024, a year-on-year decrease of 171% to 191%. Net loss after deducting non-recurring profit and loss was 5 billion to 6.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 157% to 175%. The main reasons include a significant decline in the settlement scale and gross margin of real estate development projects, depreciation of some projects, loss of financial investment in non-main businesses, and lower prices for bulk asset transactions and equity transactions than book value. The company has formulated a “package plan” for business restructuring and risk mitigation, and has made positive progress.
7. Poly Development's January-June contract amount of 173.336 billion yuan decreased by 26.8% year-on-year
On July 9, Poly Development Holding Group Co., Ltd. released a sales briefing for June 2024. According to the announcement, in June 2024, Poly Development achieved a contract area of 2.0642 million square meters, a year-on-year decrease of 11.31%; the contract amount was 42.014 billion yuan, an increase of 4.62% over the previous year. From January to June 2024, Poly Development achieved a contract area of 9.5425 million square meters, a year-on-year decrease of 31.01%; the contract amount was 173.336 billion yuan, a decrease of 26.81% year-on-year. Poly Development stated in the announcement that since the Politburo meeting of the Central Committee on April 30, 2024 and the “517 New Deal”, various ministries, departments and local governments have successively introduced policies to support the real estate industry, and market popularity has increased. The total number of weekly visits to the company's national projects remained at around 0.05 million in May-June, an increase of 32% compared to April before the introduction of the new policy, and has recovered to a high level equivalent to March-April 2023. In June 2024, the company signed a contract amount of 42.014 billion yuan, an increase of 4.62% over the previous year. The monthly year-on-year decline narrowed for 4 consecutive months since March, and was corrected for the first time in June. From January to June, the company's sales structure continued to be optimized. The sales equity ratio was 77%, an increase of 9 percentage points over the previous year; 38 core cities contributed 89% of sales, an increase of 2 percentage points over the previous year; the contract unit price was 20,353 yuan/square meter, an increase of 17.97% over the previous year.
8. Huaxia Happiness expects losses to expand to 4.5 billion to 5 billion yuan in the first half of 2024
On July 9, Huaxia Happiness Foundation Co., Ltd. (“Huaxia Happiness” for short) released the 2024 semi-annual results forecast. According to the announcement, Huaxia Happiness expects the net profit loss range attributable to shareholders of listed companies in the first half of 2024 to be between 4.5 billion yuan and 5 billion yuan, while the net profit loss range after deducting non-recurring profit and loss will be between 5.9 billion yuan and 6.4 billion yuan. Compared with the same period last year, net profit loss attributable to shareholders of listed companies in the first half of 2023 was 1.267 billion yuan, and net profit loss after deducting non-recurring profit and loss was 5.492 billion yuan. Huaxia Happiness said that due to factors such as the company's real estate project carry-over pace, there were few real estate carry-over projects in the first half of the year, and carry-over revenue declined, which led to a decline in net profit. As the restructuring of the company's debt continues to advance, the overall cost of capital remains low, but the amount of debt stock is still large.
9. Commercial housing sales in Zhengzhou rose steadily in the second quarter, supported by favorable policies
On July 10, the Zhengzhou Housing Security and Real Estate Administration released information showing that in the second quarter of 2024, commercial housing sales in Zhengzhou showed a steady growth trend. This increase is mainly due to a series of favorable property market policies recently introduced by the central government. These policies have lowered the threshold for buyers and boosted market activity. Analysts believe that the positive performance of the real estate market in Zhengzhou, in addition to benefiting from central policy support, is also closely related to the innovative measures of local governments. The “trade-in” housing model implemented by Zhengzhou has effectively promoted inventory digestion in the local commercial housing market by encouraging residents to replace old houses with new ones. Furthermore, this housing model in Zhengzhou has had an exemplary effect throughout the country, providing other cities with experience that can be learned from. The promotion of this model will help to further activate the real estate market and promote steady economic growth.
10. Hezhou, Guangxi: If you buy a newly built pre-sale commercial home, you can withdraw the Provident Fund and pay the down payment
On July 10, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Hezhou Housing Provident Fund Management Center issued a notice. From July 9 to December 31, 2024, eligible depositors and their spouses can withdraw the balance of the Provident Fund account to pay the down payment when purchasing newly built pre-sale commercial housing in Hezhou. According to the notice, buyers must meet the housing provident fund housing purchase withdrawal conditions before they can apply for withdrawal. The funds withdrawn will be transferred from the Hezhou Provident Fund Center to the pre-sale fund supervision account of the real estate development company to ensure the safety of the funds.
11. Zibo, Shandong: Starting August 1, the calculation multiplier for the provident fund loan amount will be raised from 15 times to 20 times
On July 10, the Zibo Housing Provident Fund Management Center issued an announcement stating that up to now, the individual loan rate of the Zibo Housing Provident Fund is 84.35%. According to the relevant provisions of the “Notice on Implementing the Policy Linking Housing Provident Fund Loan Amount to Deposit Balance” (Zizhufa [2023] No. 17), “When the individual loan rate of the Housing Provident Fund in Zibo City is greater than 85%, the loan linked multiplier is calculated as 15 times; when the individual housing provident fund loan ratio is less than or equal to 85%, the loan linked ratio is calculated 20 times”, it was decided to increase the calculation ratio of the housing provident fund loan amount from 15 times to 20 times starting August 1, 2024. Specifically, when an employee applied for a housing provident fund loan in Zibo, the loan amount calculation ratio was raised from 15 times to 20 times. The calculation ratio of loan amounts for flexible workers continues to be implemented in accordance with the relevant provisions of the “Zibo Interim Measures on the Deposit and Use of Housing Provident Funds for Flexible Employees” (Zizhufa (2023) No. 19), that is, the linked multiplier for 12 months of continuous deposit is 10, and the linked multiple for 24 months or more of continuous deposit is 15. The maximum loan amount still implements the policy of 0.6 million yuan for single depositor employees and 0.8 million yuan for double depositor employees.