Sawt Falasteen - China offers to buy up commercial housing to boost property market

Property and construction accounts for more than a quarter of gross domestic product, but the sector has been under unprecedented strain since 2020, when authorities tightened developers' access to credit in a bid to reduce mounting debt.

Since then, major companies including China Evergrande and Country Garden have teetered, while falling prices have dissuaded consumers from investing in property.

Under mounting pressure to boost the ailing market and ensure millions of unused homes go to those in need of housing, Beijing convened a video conference Friday, state news agency Xinhua said.

Friday's meeting was attended by regulators, representatives of top banks, local governments and the property market, Bloomberg News reported.

"Great efforts should be made to promote the handling of commercial housing projects classified as under construction that have been sold and are facing difficulties to deliver," Vice Premier He Lifeng told the meeting, according to state media.

"In cities where there is a large inventory of commercial housing, the government can place orders and purchase some of the commercial housing at reasonable prices as appropriate to use as affordable housing," he added.

No details were provided on how many houses would be bought.

- 'Unexpected and positive' -

"Relevant local governments should... properly handle transferred idle residential properties through retaking, acquisition... to help housing companies with financial difficulties solve their challenges," He said.

State media also reported, citing the central bank and the National Financial Regulatory Administration, that they would cut the minimum down payment rate for first-time homebuyers to 15 percent, one of the country's lowest-ever rates.

The rate will be cut to 25 percent for second-home purchases, it added.

The moves are some of Beijing's most ambitious yet in seeking to reverse a chronic crisis in the housing market.

"This is the lowest down payment ratio in history," Yan Yuejin, research director of the Yiju Research Institute real estate think-tank, told state-backed Phoenix TV.

"It is not only the most lenient policy in the history of mortgage loans, but also the most lenient policy among various types of home purchase policies in recent years," he added.

The State Council has said it will convene a briefing on Friday attended by officials from the housing ministry as well as those from China's top regulator and its central bank.

Shares in Chinese developers have rallied in Hong Kong in recent days on hopes of fresh support for the sector.

Jeff Zhang, an analyst at Morningstar Inc. in Hong Kong, told Bloomberg Friday's move was "unexpected and positive for property stocks".

- 'Stabilisation plan' -

Agile Group soared 23 percent and Fantasia added 8.3 percent Friday, while Sino-Ocean Group and CIFI Holdings each gained more than 12 percent.

Longfor Group added 10 percent and China Vanke piled on 19 percent each, having jumped 15 percent and 16 percent respectively on Thursday, according to Bloomberg News.

Liu Aihua, spokesperson and chief economist of the National Bureau of Statistics, told a news conference on Friday that the country's property sector "continues to be in a period of adjustment".

The meeting comes as official figures Friday showed that property prices and sales in the country continued to slip in April.

Measures introduced by the central government to support the sector have so far had little effect.

But HSBC economists wrote in a note that, with Friday's announcement: "China's property stabilisation plan is underway."

"The quicker and bolder the intervention plan, the more effective it will be, in our view," they said.

Q.Najjar--SF-PST