Why is Nanjing a little special? Many places in the Yangtze River Delta are promoting the old-for-new housing program
Since the first batch of cities such as Taicang tried out the housing "old for new" policy in October last year, many cities in the Yangtze River Delta have launched the housing "old for new" policy in the first half of this year, such as Nanjing, Wuxi, Nantong, Yancheng, etc., to revitalize the stock of houses and activate the real estate market. After some cities have implemented it for a period of time, the effect has been initially shown. In the past two weeks, cities such as Quzhou and Lianyungang have also chosen to join after waiting for a period of time.
At present, there are two modes of housing "trading old for new" launched by cities in the Yangtze River Delta. One is "selling on behalf of others", where new houses are selected first, and the old houses are put up for sale by intermediary companies. Real estate agents give priority to recommending them and selling them as soon as possible so that the replacement people can get their money back and buy new houses; the other is "acquisition", where the replacement people sell the old houses to developers and the sale proceeds are directly used to buy new houses.
Shanghai is promoting the "agent selling" model. On May 3 this year, the official WeChat account of "Shanghai Real Estate Association" released information that the Shanghai Real Estate Industry Association and the Shanghai Real Estate Brokerage Industry Association jointly initiated the "old for new" activity for commercial housing in Shanghai. As of June 3, a total of 13 companies, 21 projects and 10 real estate brokerage agencies in Shanghai participated in the activity.
However, some cities first adopted the "agent selling" model, and after exploring for a period of time, they chose another "acquisition" model. On September 7 last year, the Nanjing Real Estate Industry Association and the Nanjing Real Estate Brokerage Industry Association jointly issued the "Notice on Promoting the Linkage of First- and Second-hand Houses to Support the Housing Improvement Demand of "Selling Old for New"", also known as the "New for New" service model: Homebuyers sign a "Buy with Confidence" subscription agreement for newly built commercial housing with developers, and at the same time sign a "Priority Selling" agreement for second-hand houses with brokerage agencies, agreeing that within a period of 30-90 days, if the second-hand house is not sold, the subscription money for the new house can be refunded, that is, "no reason to withdraw from the house."
In April this year, Nanjing tried another "acquisition" model, with Nanjing Anju Construction Group purchasing citizens' existing housing stock. The first batch of pilot projects was limited to 2,000 units, which could be exchanged for 14 new housing projects in Jianye District, Qixia District, Jiangbei New District, Jiangning District, Qinhuai District, and Lishui District. In less than a month, 4,150 groups registered their intention to buy new houses on the WeChat applet "Ning Huan Xin" platform, and 52 groups of customers in the first batch confirmed the transaction.
Soon, other real estate companies in Nanjing followed suit. On June 6, the second batch of "old for new" in Nanjing was launched, with the participation of 12 real estate companies such as Nanjing Olympic Sports Construction, and 21 new commercial housing projects and 2,780 housing units were launched. Not only that, Nanjing's "old for new" policy is still being improved in the process of implementation. For example, the latest notice issued by the Nanjing Municipal Leading Group Office for Promoting the Stable and Healthy Development of Real Estate clearly stated that the children of the successful replacement buyers will retain the corresponding compulsory education enrollment rights before the replacement within 3 years from the date of the signing and effectiveness of the "Existing Housing Sales Contract".
Recently, in the Yangtze River Delta, more and more cities have chosen the "acquisition" model, and the new policies of some cities have also achieved relatively obvious results. In early April, the first batch of "old for new" pilot projects in Liangxi District, Wuxi was launched. In about a month, more than 40 properties were sold, and the conversion rate exceeded 85%. Soon, Wuxi launched the "old for new" 2.0 version on May 11, expanding the original regulation that replacement housing sources can only be "one for one" to support "one for one" and "one for many". Lianyungang also launched a new real estate policy on June 6, "supporting state-owned enterprises to raise special funds through financing, acquire existing housing within the urban area and replace them with unsold new houses of the unit in a targeted manner."
In the process of promoting the "acquisition" model in various places, the scope and conditions of old house acquisition are different. According to feedback from various places, the link that citizens are most concerned about is the second-hand house appraisal price, which is also the key point of whether the transaction can be completed in the end. At present, in the Yangtze River Delta, most cities that adopt the "acquisition" model have adopted this method: randomly select 3 professional appraisal institutions to appraise the second-hand houses, and each house has 3 appraisal results, and the middle price is taken as the final appraisal price.
Regarding the relationship between the appraisal price and the market price, Zhang Hui, secretary-general of the Nanjing Real Estate Association, said that each second-hand house has a different layout, floor, and location, and the price itself is also changing, making it difficult to measure it entirely based on the market price. Currently, Nanjing also uses the final appraisal price of the appraisal agency as the basis. "Whether the transaction can be completed depends on whether the people can accept the appraisal price."
How to deal with the acquired houses? Almost all cities in the Yangtze River Delta that have implemented the "acquisition" model are exploring while doing it. A relevant person in charge of the Nantong Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau said that currently there are 5 real estate projects in the main urban area of Nantong participating in the "old for new" program, and the disposal path for the acquisition of old houses is still being explored. At present, it is planned to set up a housing group to make overall arrangements for the acquired houses, such as using them as affordable housing. A relevant person in charge of the Yancheng Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau said that they are currently investigating the rental and housing needs of college graduates and above and employees of industrial parks to make preliminary preparations for the next step of the disposal of old houses.
Yan Yuejin, research director of the E-House Research Institute, believes that the use of second-hand houses after they are acquired deserves further exploration. In addition to being used as affordable housing and talent apartments, the market should further explore "niche" demands. For example, whether houses acquired near hospitals can be used as medical facilities and provided to patients' families for short-term rental, etc. "The disposal of second-hand houses requires more exploration, especially the government and enterprises need to break through the original thinking and make some new attempts."
