Reporter Wu Jing reports from Shanghai.
China's housing rental financial support system has been further improved.
On January 5, 2024, the People's Bank of China and the State Administration of Financial Supervision and Administration jointly issued the Opinions on Financial Support for the Development of the Housing Rental Market (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), supporting the acceleration of the establishment of a housing system with multi-subject supply, multi-channel guarantee, and simultaneous rental and purchase, cultivating and developing the housing rental market, and promoting the stable and healthy development of the real estate market. The Opinions will come into force on February 5, 2024.
Yang Kan, chief analyst of Ping An's ** real estate industry, believes that the "Opinions" contain 17 articles in four parts: basic principles and requirements, strengthening the innovation of housing rental credit products and service models, broadening diversified investment and financing channels in the housing rental market, and strengthening and improving the financial management of housing leaseFocusing on the supply-side structural reform of housing leasing, we will focus on supporting the development of specialized and large-scale housing rental enterprises in self-owned properties, and provide diversified, multi-level and full-cycle financial products and financial service systems for the investment, development, construction and operation of rental housing.
A staff member of the Housing Market Management Section of the Housing and Urban-Rural Development Commission of a first-tier city told the reporter of China Business News that the grassroots have also been paying attention to the relevant policies of housing leasing, but they are trapped in the current market operation status, and "heavy sales, light leasing" is still the mainstream view of the current real estate market, and the importance of housing leasing work is far less than that of housing sales. Under the influence of factors such as traditional culture, consumption patterns, investment demand, and value returns, the development of the rental housing market has also lagged behind. However, with the major changes in the relationship between supply and demand in China's real estate market, it is imperative to develop the housing rental market and establish a housing system that combines rental and purchase.
Policies continue to advance
The ** Economic Work Conference held at the end of 2023 proposed to explore the construction of the long-term rental housing market;**The financial work conference proposed to speed up the construction of "three major projects" such as affordable housing and build a new model of real estate development.
The housing rental market is the main market for real estate profitability in addition to the housing sales market. With the enhancement of population mobility across the country, the share of the housing rental market in the real estate market has gradually increased, and together with the housing sales market, it constitutes the real estate market. An intermediary of Lianjia Real Estate told reporters frankly that the housing rental market, especially in provincial capitals and first-tier cities, has a high market share, which has become a new growth point in the real estate market. The State vigorously supports the development of the housing rental market in order to rationally allocate housing resources, improve the utilization rate of idle real estate resources, and reduce the waste rate of real estate resources.
However, the staff of the above-mentioned housing market management department believes that from the perspective of the current laws and regulations of the housing rental market, the legal documents related to housing rental services are too formalized and weakly operational, and do not cover all aspects involved in housing rental services for the time being. In view of the non-standard business behaviors such as "high income and low rent" and "long income and short rent" in the housing rental market, there is a lack of clear definition of legal liability in the legal literature related to housing leasing. In addition, with the development of the rental market, new types of housing leasing methods are emerging. Related to this, new types of housing lease cases are constantly emerging. For example, in the leasing of public rental housing, a series of disputes will arise due to illegal subletting, rent collection, repair and maintenance, which of these disputes are civil disputes and which are administrative disputes, which need to be further studied.
It is gratifying that in the past period, various policies and measures to support the housing rental market, including finance, have been implemented one after another, and the intensity has been increasing. On June 3, 2016, the "Several Opinions on Accelerating the Cultivation and Development of the Housing Rental Market" (Guo Ban Fa No. 39 2016) was issued, pointing out that by 2020, a housing rental market system with diversified subjects, standardized business services and stable leasing relationships will be basically formedOn July 2, 2021, ** issued the "Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Affordable Rental Housing" (Guo Ban Fa 2021 No. 22), pointing out that affordable rental housing mainly solves the housing difficulties of eligible new citizens, young people and other groups, and is mainly small units with a construction area of no more than 70 square meters, and the rent is lower than the rent of market rental housing of the same location and qualityOn February 24, 2023, the People's Bank of China and the former China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission jointly issued the Opinions on Financial Support for the Development of the Housing Rental Market (Draft for Comments).On January 5, 2024, the People's Bank of China and the State Administration of Financial Supervision jointly issued the Opinions on Financial Support for the Development of the Housing Rental Market.
In the view of Yuan Hao, chief analyst of Shenwan Hongyuan's real estate industry, since 2023, the importance of the "three major projects" has been emphasized in important meetings many times, including the Politburo meeting on April 28, 2023, the Politburo meeting on July 24, 2023, the financial work conference held at the end of October, and the economic work conference held in mid-December, etc., and the top-level design of relevant affordable housing policies is also constantly improving.
It should be noted that the staff of the above-mentioned housing market management department believes that once the capital chain of the housing leasing enterprise is broken, it will lead to the consequences that are inconsistent with the legal responsibility of the enterprise, and then the legitimate rights and interests of the landlord and tenant cannot be protected. In addition, the frequent occurrence of housing rental problems such as indiscriminate rent increases and non-check-out rents have further hindered the development of the housing rental industry, making it difficult for it to move forward on the road to development.
It is worth mentioning that the "Opinions" emphasize that the boundaries of housing rental finance business should be strictly enforced. The housing rental finance business should be strictly positioned to support the development of the housing rental market, and it should not provide financing for short-term speculation. Housing rental financial products and services should be clearly distinguished from other housing financial products and services, and it is strictly forbidden to finance non-rental housing in the name of supporting housing leasing, and it is strictly forbidden to use housing rental financial products for commercial real estate development in violation of regulations.
Broaden investment and financing channels in an all-round way
In order to further strengthen and improve the financial services of the housing rental market, the "Opinions" focus on encouraging financial institutions to increase product innovation, starting from the development and construction of housing rental, the bulk purchase of rental housing by enterprises and institutions, and the operation of housing rental, and explore ways to increase credit support to cover the whole cycle of rental housing projects.
Yang Kan, chief analyst of Ping An's ** real estate industry, believes that in the development and construction process, the "Opinions" support commercial banks to issue housing rental development and construction loans to all kinds of entities for new construction and renovation of long-term rental housing, with a loan term of 3 years and a maximum of 5 yearsIn terms of bulk purchases, the Opinions encourage commercial banks to issue loans to eligible entities for the purchase of housing rental groups, with the loan amount not exceeding 80% of the appraised value of the property and the term not exceeding 30 yearsIn terms of operation, the "Opinions" support the issuance of housing lease operating loans to housing rental enterprises with their own property rights, and allow the replacement of development loans, with a loan term of no more than 20 years and a limit of no more than 80% of the appraised value of the propertyAt the same time, the "Opinions" support the issuance of operating loans to housing leasing enterprises that do not own their own property rights, with a loan term of no more than 5 years and an amount of no more than 70% of the total rent receivable during the term.
A staff member of industrial investment told reporters frankly that in recent years, due to the restriction of non-standard financing, the stricter storage of PPP (** and social capital cooperation) projects, and the gradual transformation of urban investment bonds, traditional infrastructure financing tools are facing bottlenecks, and China's infrastructure construction funds are obviously insufficient, and infrastructure construction plays an important supporting role in China's economic and social development. However, the application requirements for affordable rental housing infrastructure REITs projects are not less than one year in principle, and the operation period requirements can be appropriately reduced for projects that have been able to achieve long-term stable income. At present, the domestic stock of affordable rental housing is mainly public rental housing held by local affordable housing centers, and most of them are still in the construction and delivery period, which is difficult to meet the requirements of the project declaration for an operation time of not less than one year. In short, the construction of affordable rental housing projects started late, the operation period is relatively short, and the income has not yet stabilized, and high-quality projects of affordable rental housing REITs in the strict sense are still scarce.
It is worth mentioning that the "Opinions" proposes to steadily promote the pilot work of real estate investment trusts, and raise funds for housing rental enterprises to hold and operate long-term rental housing under the premise of controlling risks. Support the trading and circulation of real estate investment trusts, promote the long-term stable operation of housing rental enterprises, and prevent short-term speculation. Priority will be given to supporting key national policy support areas such as Xiong'an New Area, Hainan Free Port, Shenzhen Pilot Demonstration Zone of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, as well as large cities with a net inflow of population, to carry out pilot projects of real estate investment trusts, and provide financial support for enterprises that use various types of construction land (including collective construction land, idle land owned by enterprises and institutions, etc.) to build, hold and operate long-term rental housing in accordance with laws and regulations.
Editor: Meng Qingwei Proofreader: Zhai Jun).