Over 50 local policies to optimize housing fund loan policies within the year

If you want to trade stocks, look to the Golden Qilin analyst reports—authoritative, professional, timely, and comprehensive—helping you uncover high-potential theme opportunities!

By Zhang Shangyi, a reporter

On March 25, the Foshan Housing Provident Fund Management Center issued an announcement, publicly soliciting public comments on the “Notice on Adjusting the Administrative Measures for Personal Housing Provident Fund Housing Loans in Foshan City” (Draft for Public Comment).

The day before, the Chengdu Housing Provident Fund Management Center held a press briefing on the rollout of new policies, releasing a series of policy measures including the “Notice on Further Optimizing Policies Related to Housing Provident Funds” and the “Notice on Adjusting Policies Related to Housing Provident Fund Loans.”

Housing provident funds play an important role in promoting housing consumption and meeting residents’ housing needs. Since this year began, local areas have been intensively optimizing policies related to housing provident funds. Data from the China Index Academy shows that as of March 26, this year local areas have introduced more than 50 policy adjustments to housing provident fund loans, with support mainly increasing in areas such as raising loan limits, optimizing the recognition of housing unit counts, and expanding the scope of withdrawals and usage of housing provident funds.

“In terms of the directions of adjustments among various policies already issued and implemented, the number of adjustment policies targeting housing provident fund loans is the largest. This is an important lever for localities to adjust, optimize, and promote housing consumption at present.” a spokesperson with the China Index Academy said.

It is noteworthy that while raising the ceiling on housing provident fund loan amounts and adjusting limits on the number of times housing provident fund loans can be taken, local areas are also exploring the direction of deepening reforms to the housing provident fund system. Expanding the scope of housing provident fund usage and breaking regional restrictions on withdrawals have become key focus areas for localities.

For example, the Chengdu Housing Provident Fund Management Center’s “Notice on Further Optimizing Policies Related to Housing Provident Funds,” released on March 24, clearly states that it will further expand the scope of use. For housing that is part of urban renewal and renovation projects in Chengdu, where the property owner uses personal funds to pay renovation costs, the owner may apply to withdraw the housing provident fund for both themselves and their spouse within two years from the date of payment.

The Jiujiang Housing Provident Fund Management Center, on March 25, released the “Notice on Adjusting Housing Provident Fund Usage Policies” (hereinafter referred to as the “Notice”). The “Notice” proposes to support employees in withdrawing housing provident funds to pay for property management services. At the same time, it also clarifies that it will expand the scope of eligible employees who contribute housing provident funds and apply for off-site loans. The eligible scope has been expanded from within Jiangxi Province and the middle reaches of the Yangtze River urban agglomeration to cities nationwide.

In addition, some regions have also introduced new initiatives to enable interoperability of housing provident funds. On March 3, Guangzhou launched the country’s first cross-border RMB settlement service for housing provident funds. When provident fund contributors with household status in Hong Kong, Macao, and overseas (Hong Kong/Macao residents in Guangzhou) withdraw housing provident funds in Guangzhou, they may make cross-border payments to bank accounts in Hong Kong and Macao.

Li Yujia, chief researcher at the Guangdong Housing Policy Research Center, said that this measure mainly benefits existing users who have been contributing to housing provident funds in Guangzhou and have withdrawal needs. It covers steps including withdrawals and loans. This will further smooth the cross-city transfer of housing provident funds, provide convenience in financing support for housing consumption by residents in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and also offer replicable practical explorations for integrating public services and facilitating the flow of talent and factors within the Greater Bay Area.

Yan Yuejin, deputy dean of the Shanghai E-House Real Estate Research Institute, said that currently, the real estate industry has entered a stage of high-quality development focused on whether it is “good or not.” Housing demand is shifting from simply having a place to live to quality-oriented, full-lifecycle services. Reform of housing provident funds cannot stop only at the micro-level adjustments of interest rates; it must serve the macro direction of improving the quality of housing consumption and upgrading housing demand. Breaking regional barriers, supporting off-site loans and off-site home purchases for withdrawal, and expanding application scenarios are all directions for deepening housing provident fund reforms.

When discussing the direction of future reforms to the housing provident fund system, Yan Yuejin believes that housing provident funds should play a more proactive role in providing funding support in areas such as supporting new urban residents in achieving stable housing, helping boost domestic demand, serving the “good housing” strategy, and uncovering and applying use-case scenarios. At the same time, housing provident funds should also be deeply integrated with the concept of “people-industry-city” integrated development, forming more systematic institutional arrangements for coordination among population, industries, and cities.

		Sina Statement: This news is reprinted from Sina’s partner media. Sina.com has published this article for the purpose of transmitting more information, and does not imply endorsement of its viewpoints or verification of its descriptions. The article content is for reference only and does not constitute investment advice. Investors act on this at their own risk.

Massive information and precise analysis—available on the Sina Finance APP

责任编辑：高佳