Efforts to Stabilize China's Real Estate Market

BEIJING (Reuters) – Efforts will continue in 2025 to stabilize and prevent further declines in China's real estate market, as reported by China Construction News. This follows a work conference held by the housing regulator on Tuesday and Wednesday.

China aims to vigorously promote the reform of the commercial housing sales system and expand the scope of urban village renovation beyond the addition of 1 million units.

Additionally, the country will strictly control the supply of commercial housing while increasing the supply of affordable housing to address living problems faced by new citizens, young people, and migrant workers.

Policymakers have intensified efforts to revive the real estate sector by introducing new measures to encourage home demand, in response to a government-led campaign that aimed to rein in highly leveraged developers, which triggered a crisis in 2021.

Since September, the measures encouraging homebuying have included cutting mortgage rates and minimum down-payments, along with tax incentives to lower housing transaction costs.

The real estate market appears to be stabilizing, with home transactions in October and November experiencing double year-on-year and month-on-month growth for two consecutive months, according to the conference.

China's home prices fell at the slowest pace in 17 months in November, aided by government efforts to revive the sector, as per official data.

An official from the Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission called in December for policy measures to be swiftly adopted to stabilize the real estate market, granting local governments greater autonomy to purchase housing stock.