Chinese property surge leads some cities to ban multiple home ownership

Zhengzhou has banned people from buying third properties in some areas. It is one of six major Chinese cities to issue property reforms to curb speculation. Yawen Chen / Reuters

Local governments in six Chinese cities tightened rules for home purchases over the past three days in a bid to damp resurgent demand and rein in excessive speculation.

Authorities in the six metropolitan areas introduced measures ranging from raising down-payment requirements for both first and second homes to ruling some potential buyers ineligible.

Sichuan’s provincial capital Chengdu and Henan’s provincial capital Zhengzhou on Sunday banned people from buying a third property in some areas. Wuxi, a southern manufacturing base close to Shanghai, raised down-payment requirements for second homes to a minimum of 40 per cent of the property’s value from 30 per cent previously.

The eastern city of Jinan said on Sunday that residents who already owned three properties could not buy more and increased down payment requirements for those buying their first home to 30 per cent from 20 per cent, among other measures detailed in a document on the government’s website.

Pictures of hopeful homebuyers queuing up in Jinan to obtain spots in a lottery-like registry system during the public holiday weekend were widely published in state media before the new restrictions were published.

Such cities have become the target of property speculators looking for the next big thing beyond China’s major cities. Other cities such as Tianjin, Hefei and Suzhou have also recently introduced measures to limit purchases as home prices jump.

Home prices in at least one district in Zhengzhou, which became a symbol of China’s property excesses because of rows of empty housing developments, have risen two-thirds this year to 25,000 yuan (Dh13,764) per square metre on average, a sales manager told Reuters on a recent visit to the city.

The capital city Beijing on Friday increased down payments for first-time purchasers to a minimum of 35 per cent of the selling price, the highest level among Chinese biggest cities. Adjacent Tianjin banned non-locals from buying second properties, while southern Suzhou said it would warn developers if prices were “notably” higher than costs plus a reasonable profit.

Home prices in the world’s most populous nation rose the most in six years in August, defying new policies to curb excessive speculation in big cities and government warnings about asset bubbles. While gains have been most pronounced in big cities such as Shenzhen, where home prices are up about 60 per cent in the past year, smaller centres such as Xiamen have also seen runaway growth, with prices soaring more than 38 per cent.

“There will not be a holistic plan to address the property market,” said Iris Pang, a senior economist for Greater China at Natixis in Hong Kong.

“Local governments are the ones who will work out their own measures.”

Investment in the property sector may retreat in the first half of next year as the new curbs take effect, said Wen Bin, a Beijing-based researcher at China Minsheng Banking.

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