City of Beijing Ends Curbs on Multiple Home Ownership in Outer Areas to Stimulate Buying

The City of Bejing has relaxed some rules on multiple home purchases after 13 years as part of China’s efforts to stimulate a stubbornly stagnant property market, the South China Morning Post reported (5-1-24).

According to a notice issued by the housing authority, families that have reached the current ownership limits will be allowed to purchase one more home in the area outside Beijing’s fifth ring road. In addition, single adults who hold a Beijing hukou, or permanent residence permit, as well as non-hukou holders who have paid social insurance or income tax for five or more years, will be allowed to buy a second property in the area.

The easing of the rules—originally put in place in 2011 to ease speculative buying—came on the same day that new statistics underscored the property market’s continued slump. New home sales in April by the top 100 Chinese developers dropped 44.9% year-over-year to 312.2 billion yuan (US$43 billion) and fell 12.9% compared with March, according to China Real Estate Information Corporation.

The move also came on the same day that the Politburo, the ruling Communist Party’s top decision-making body, called for promoting the high-quality development of the housing sector as it announced its long-awaited third plenary session in July.

It also follows moves by Chengdu and Changsha to fully remove housing purchase restrictions city-wide and resumption by Nanjing of its “buy a home and get a hukou” policy after seven years.