① Recently, several cities have introduced new regulations to reduce common floor space, including Shenzhen, Foshan, Huizhou, and Qingyuan. ② Analysts believe that the new regulations on adjusting the floor area and floor area and increasing housing rates have become a new means of property market regulation, and it is expected that more cities will follow up and adjust related policies in the future.
Financial Services Association, May 15 (Reporter Li Jie) In the context of the Politburo meeting to “optimize incremental housing,” several cities have recently introduced new regulations to reduce shared floor space, and the market has once again sparked discussions on shared floor space.
According to market sources, the 2024 edition of the “Shenzhen Building Design Rules” will be officially released in the near future. The revisions include reducing the size of residential stalls, effectively increasing housing rates, and implementing a 150-meter height limit for houses and dormitories.
In response, the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Planning and Natural Resources told reporters that the relevant documents are expected to be published on the official website next week. The details are subject to the published documents.
In fact, in addition to Shenzhen, Guangdong's Foshan, Huizhou, Qingyuan and other places have successively introduced new regulations on the area of residential land and public stalls. Zhaoqing, on the other hand, announced the implementation of promotion and sales based on the size of the unit.
Analysts believe that the new regulations on adjusting the floor area and floor area and increasing housing rates have become a new means of regulating the property market, and it is expected that more cities will follow up and adjust related policies in the future.
Regarding the reason for introducing the relevant policy, Li Yujia, chief researcher at the Housing Policy Research Center of the Guangdong Provincial Urban Planning Institute, told the reporter that the supervisory authorities proposed “optimizing incremental housing,” while optimizing incremental growth means improving the effectiveness of new supply, reducing land supply costs, and better matching the demand side.
“The new regulations on floor area and public stalls introduced in the above cities essentially reduce the price and cost of buying a house by increasing the area of the apartment and the actual use area, thereby reducing housing prices in disguise. These measures are conducive to increasing buyers' enthusiasm to buy homes.” Li Yujia said that projects with increased housing rates will be more competitive than other projects, and will also boost developers' enthusiasm to acquire land due to lower unit prices and rapid removal speed.
New housing in Shenzhen will reduce the size of public stalls
The reporter learned that since the “Shenzhen Architectural Design Rules” were issued in 2014, they have been revised 4 times.
This revision mainly focuses on 7 aspects, as mentioned in point 3. Combining the current state of urban architecture and design innovation under high-density and high-capacity development, calculation methods such as greening coverage and building coverage have been optimized, construction area control methods have been optimized, and provisions such as grooves and outdoor ventilation have been simplified.
Among them, what is most noteworthy is that in the past, Shenzhen included two major parts of the “public stall” area, and public spaces such as evacuation floors and computer rooms will be classified as “unaccommodated areas.”
In other words, after this revision, the shared floor area of new housing in Shenzhen will be reduced, and the housing acquisition rate will effectively increase.
At the same time, Shenzhen has also made adjustments in the design of residential units. The 2024 edition of the “Shenzhen Building Design Rules” added the content that “the depth of half of the balcony is not more than 2.4 meters, and the horizontal projection area exceeding half of the area shall be included in the specified construction area”.
Previously, it was stipulated that the depth of the balcony should not exceed 2.4 meters. After the revision, the depth of the balcony can be increased, and parts exceeding 2.4 meters are included in the specified construction surface. However, if the conditions are met, the bay window can not be included in the construction area, and the depth of entry was also increased from 0.6 meters to 0.8 meters after the revision. This means that the “bay window” area of the house will be increased by one circle.
In addition, the 2024 edition of the “Shenzhen Building Design Rules” introduced a “height limit”, that is, the height of buildings used for primary use in new industrial land (M0) must not exceed 250 meters, and the height of residential and dormitories should not exceed 150 meters.
According to information, in the past, architectural design in Shenzhen was affected by high-density cities and urban renewal costs, etc., and super-high-rise residences continued to emerge. After the revision, diverse products such as low-floor area communities, high-rise residences, multi-storey houses, villas, etc. are expected to return to meet the public's demand for more improvements.
“Shenzhen's introduction of a new version of the “Shenzhen Architectural Design Rules” is a concrete expression of implementing the construction of a 'good house' and will further meet the expectations of buyers for high construction standards and good quality real estate. For development companies, projects with high housing rates are more competitive. For buyers, the housing acquisition rate will increase, the interior area will increase, and if you buy a house at the same price, you can get more usable area, and the comfort of living will improve.” Chen Wenjing, director of market research at the China Index Research Institute, told reporters.
Increasing housing availability may become a new trend
In fact, the public has been discussing the issue of shared floor space for a long time.
From a policy perspective, on April 30 this year, the Politburo meeting of the Central Committee emphasized the need to urgently construct a new model of real estate development in line with the new changes in the relationship between supply and demand in the real estate market and the people's new expectations for high-quality housing to promote high-quality real estate development. This conference will raise the construction of “good houses” to a new level, and “good house” construction will become an important part of the new model of real estate development.
Across the country, many cities have recently begun to implement the spirit of the central government and have begun revising the new regulations for calculating shared floor space to increase housing availability.
On May 13, the Huizhou Natural Resources Bureau issued “Certain Measures for the Planning and Management of New Residential Land Sale in Urban Areas 2024-2025”, which mentions that “auxiliary buildings such as public staircases, elevator rooms, water tanks, civil security alarm rooms, and communication base station computer rooms on the roof of buildings are not included in the floor area ratio and are not included in the floor area of a public booth area”, “Land with an area of less than 30,000 square meters. The floor area of the first floor of a residential building is not included in the floor area ratio.”
On the same day, Foshan also issued 13 new property market measures. Among them, it was mentioned that for newly sold residential land, the upper limit of the “halved” floor area of a residential apartment balcony was raised from 18% to 20%; restrictions on the depth and area of individual balconies were lifted; and the requirement that the height difference between convex (floating) window sills and the floor be reduced to less than 0.45 meters.
“Essentially, the new plan for floor space and public stalls is not a product innovation, but rather an adjustment of planning indicators to improve the level of benefits for buyers.” Li Yujia said.
A number of analysts interviewed told the reporter that reducing the size of public stalls and increasing housing rates are future regulatory trends, but they should gradually transition. Chen Wenjing also believes that in the future, all regions will continue to implement the “good house” construction requirements, and it is expected that more cities will follow up and introduce relevant measures.
As more and more cities follow up on relevant optimization measures, Zhang Dawei, chief analyst of Central Plains Real Estate, predicts that in the future, the national public stall coefficient is likely to change drastically, a new apartment system is coming soon, and it will also usher in new market changes. Buyers will be able to buy apartments with higher housing rates and better designed products, but second-hand properties or projects where developers have already entered the market will be impacted.
It further stated that currently the 89-square-meter junior three-bedroom contestants that have been sold in cities such as Beijing are quite cramped, and the housing rate is only about 75%, while recently the housing rate for newly planned apartments by developers has generally exceeded 80%.
“Judging from Guangzhou's experience, revising the public floor area policy is beneficial for developers to acquire new plots of land and consumers who have purchased this project. However, for projects that have already entered the market but have not been developed or sold before, the latter face some pressure during elimination because they have no advantage in terms of floor area ratio or public stalls, especially projects that are close.” Li Yujia said.