Enjoy the New Year
When it comes to housing reform, the scene in 1998 is vivid. In July of that year, ** issued the "Notice on Further Deepening the Reform of the Urban Housing System and Accelerating Housing Construction", which made it clear that the housing distribution system would be abolished and the monetization of housing distribution would be implemented from the second half of 1998. This is an important milestone in the history of China's housing reform, marking the beginning of the era of comprehensive commoditization of national housing. Since then, housing has changed from welfare distribution to commodity, and has entered the era of commercial housing, injecting vitality and prosperity into the real estate industry for more than 20 years.
The proof is in the data. Since the housing reform in 1998, after more than 20 years of vigorous development of the real estate industry, the shortage of housing resources that China once faced has been greatly alleviated. Looking back at history, in 1978, the per capita housing area of urban residents in the country was only 36 square meters, and 8.69 million households in the city face a housing shortage. Clearly, the traditional housing allocation system is no longer able to meet the growing housing needs. Especially since the reform and opening up, with the rapid development of the country's economy and the acceleration of the urbanization process, a large number of people have poured into the cities, making the housing problem more severe.
However, the implementation of housing commercialization reform has not only effectively alleviated the shortage of housing resources, but also become a powerful driving force for China's economic development. Data show that by the end of 2020, the per capita housing area of urban residents in China has jumped to more than 40 square meters, an increase of 36 over 19784 square meters. At the same time, the urbanization rate has also increased from 17 in 197892% to 66 in 202316%。These earth-shaking changes fully demonstrate the far-reaching impact of housing reform, which not only improves people's living conditions, but also promotes the progress and development of the country.
Since the first housing reform in 1998, China's real estate industry has developed rapidly, and in just a few years, it has successfully provided a safe place for 900 million urban people. However, with the rapid development of the industry, some problems have gradually emerged. The overemphasis on investment attributes in real estate has led to property hoarding and rising housing prices, which has brought heavy economic pressure to the general public.
Looking back at the early stage of the reform of housing commercialization, China's housing resources were in short supply, and the people's demand for housing was urgent, so housing prices continued to be the same. With the steady progress of urbanization, nearly 20 million rural people are pouring into cities every year, which further promotes the ** of housing prices.
However, at present, there is an oversupply of housing resources in our country. The speculative behaviour of property speculators has led to high house prices and rising vacancy rates. According to statistics, by the end of 2020, the average house price in China has reached 9,860 yuan square meters, and it takes a huge amount of money to buy a house. In first- and second-tier popular cities, housing prices have soared to tens of thousands of yuan or even more than 100,000 yuan per square meter. Although house prices have fallen slightly from 2021 to 2024, the average house price in 2023 is still as high as 9,600 yuan square meters, and the decline is limited. This makes buying a home a heavy burden for the general population, especially low-income groups, young graduates and new urban populations. At the same time, the rental market is not an easy choice.
As housing prices continue to soar, a large amount of social capital has poured into the real estate industry, which has undoubtedly put heavy pressure on the real economy. Can you imagine? It is too difficult for an ordinary family to have to spend many years of savings and take on a mortgage in order to have a warm nest. Such economic pressures have made it difficult for them to maintain normal consumer demand, which has had a huge impact on the retail industry and other real economies.
Moreover, the soaring housing prices are also like dominoes, driving the continuous increase in rents, making many enterprises face huge rent pressure. What's more serious is that those scientific researchers who are silently dedicated to the field of scientific research and have made great contributions to the country and society are facing an unprecedented dilemma of buying a house because of their relatively low salaries. This status quo not only seriously restricts the development of China's high-tech industries, but also casts a deep shadow on China's future economic prospects.
In the face of this severe challenge, many experts and scholars have put forward the idea of implementing the "second housing reform". They believe that through the "second housing reform", we are expected to see the light of day and solve many problems in the current property market. Looking back on the first housing reform in 1998, it is like a magic key, which successfully opened the door to the shortage of housing resources in China. Therefore, people are looking forward to the "second housing reform", hoping to solve the current problem of excessive housing burden, inject new vitality into the real economy, and create better living conditions for scientific researchers. In response to the "second housing reform", Xu Yuan, a professor at Peking University, proposed a new plan, mainly focusing on six aspects:
The "second housing reform" and "the second opening" at the same time, to promote a new round of economic growth, in the "second opening" at the same time, to start the "second housing reform" at home, is a three-win policy grasp, short-term, medium-term and long-term strategic interests.The core of Xu Yuan's concept of "secondary housing reform" is to solve the housing problem for low-income people. This is highly consistent with the country's goal of property market regulation, and both sides are trying to explore how to let the homeless live and work in peace and contentment. Although China's per capita homeownership rate has reached a high level, there are still some groups of people, especially low-income people, who find it difficult to afford the pressure of buying a house. Even if house prices drop significantly, it is still a distant dream for them.1. Qualifications for purchasing a house: for all people without housing, the only standard is to pay social security at the place of employment, and does not discriminate against the population without household registration and education;
2. House design: for low- and middle-income new citizen groups, small apartments of 40 to 60 square meters are the mainstay, which complement each other with commercial housing to form a complete housing market;
3. City selection: It should be mainly selected in metropolises, metropolitan areas and core cities, and cannot be selected in small and medium-sized cities. Based on the inflow of population, cities are selected according to the number of people entering the population and the quota of affordable housing is allocated;
4. Housing loan: abide by the principle of commercial sustainability, the down payment is not less than 20%, and the loan interest rate can be appropriately preferential;
5. Social security follows people: it is necessary to transfer the social security of new citizens to the social security system of the settled city, and the social security funds should be allocated and managed in a unified manner. It is necessary to adopt the gradual idea of "there is a difference in grade, no difference in status", and gradually improve the level of social security;
6. Vigorously build schools, hospitals, commercial and other supporting facilities to improve the quality and availability of basic public services.
Therefore, it is urgent to solve the housing problem of the homeless. When this part of the population is properly resettled, the rigid demand of the property market will be greatly reduced, and the housing price will also lose population support. In this way, the "second housing reform" not only meets the needs of low-income people, but also injects new vitality into the regulation and control of the property market. Farmers, urban low-income earners and those who just need to buy a home will all benefit from the "second housing reform".
Obviously, if the "second housing reform" can be successfully implemented, we have reason to believe that the phenomenon of speculation in the property market will be effectively curbed, and housing prices will gradually return to a reasonable range. We are looking forward to this reform plan and believe that it will bring hope to more people to live and work in peace and contentment.