Down payment cut, tax exemption announced

Chinese authorities on Monday announced a relaxation of mortgage rules for second-home buyers and a tax exemption for home transactions, moves that could help to support the sagging property market, experts said.

For home buyers with an outstanding mortgage who are applying for another commercial mortgage to buy a second home, the minimum down payment will be cut to 40 percent, according to a statement jointly released on Monday by China's central bank, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Developmentand the China Banking Regulatory Commission.

The minimum down payment for second-home purchases is currently between 60 and 70 percent, with the level varying in different areas.

The statement also said the minimum down payment for first-home buyers using public housing funds will be cut to 20 percent. Currently it is set at 30 percent.

The minimum down payment for second-home buyers without an outstanding mortgage and using public housing funds will be 30 percent, the statement said.

The new moves are intended to support people's ability to improve their living conditions and also to promote stable and sound development of the real estate sector, the statement noted.

No timetable was given as to when the new policy will enter into force.

"The down payment cut was prompted by the cooling property market," Hui Jianqiang, research director with real estate information provider Beijing Zhongfangyanxie Technology Service, told the Global Times Monday.

Average new home prices in 70 major Chinese cities saw a 5.7 percent year-on-year drop in February, the sixth consecutive monthly fall, according to a Reuters calculation based on data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on March 18.

"Faced with a slowing economy, China needs to stimulate consumption, and encouraging home transactions is one of the most effective ways to do this," according to Hui.

The real estate industry contributed 6 percent of China's GDP in 2014, but recent property price data has shown a continuing slowdown in the market, weighing on economic growth, according to a research note e-mailed to the Global Times Monday by Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ).

"Real estate developers' major task in 2015 is to sell their existing inventory and the down payment cut will help with this," Zhang Hongwei, research director at Shanghai-based property consultancy ToSpur, told the Global Times Monday.

The 40 percent down payment will increase residents' demand for improving their living conditions, as well as boosting property turnover and accelerating the sales of existing inventory, according to ANZ.

Also on Monday, Chinese authorities announced an exemption from capital gains tax for homes bought at least two years ago, according to a statement jointly released by the Ministry of Financeand the State Administration of Taxation.

Exemption from the tax - which is set at 5.6 percent of the difference between the original and the new price - used to apply only to homes bought at least five years ago.

"The tax exemption will increase the supply of second-hand homes in the market, which could prevent a possible home price surge caused by the down payment cut," Hui said.

The tax exemption and the down payment reduction are supplementary to each other, and they form a package of polices that are as favorable for the property market as the policies released by the central government in 2008, according to Hui.

Developers of middle and high-end properties may benefit from these new policies, according to Zhang of ToSpur.

"Such companies have faced a sales decline due to the previous down payment and capital gains tax rules, but now there is a possibility for them to see an improvement," Zhang said.

The lower down payment will boost demand for better homes in China's first- and second-tier cities, so some property developers may show renewed interest in these cities, Zhang noted.