BEIJING, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) — Moves by state-owned capital to purchase existing housing are accelerating in many parts of China. As one of the important means of destocking, the industry believes that local state-owned enterprises purchasing commercial housing for use as affordable housing can help raise affordable housing, shorten construction time, and also effectively absorb market inventory and promote the stabilization and recovery of the real estate market.

　　On August 12, Zhaoqing City in Guangdong Province issued a notice on soliciting commercial housing for use as affordable housing. The scope of housing solicitation covers the central areas of each county (city, district) of Zhaoqing City, with priority given to completed existing commercial housing in the central urban area.

　　Zhuhai City recently disclosed news of an acquisition of existing commercial housing involving an amount of more than 10 billion yuan (RMB, the same below). Zhuhai Huafa Industrial Co., Ltd. announced that it plans to conduct transactions for existing commercial housing and supporting parking spaces with its controlling shareholder Zhuhai Huafa Group Co., Ltd. or its subsidiaries, with a total transaction amount of no more than 12 billion yuan. Huafa Group is the largest comprehensive state-owned enterprise group in Zhuhai. According to the announcement, the acquired existing commercial housing will be used to increase the supply of affordable housing, talent housing, and commercial rental housing in Zhuhai.

　　In addition, Shenzhen, Shenyang, Guangzhou, and many other places have recently disclosed plans or progress for local state-owned capital to enter the market and acquire existing commercial housing.

　　A review by the reporter found that since the beginning of this year, state-owned capital acquisitions of existing housing have mostly followed the principle of "purchasing according to demand," and the acquired existing housing generally has three uses:

　　First, using the acquired existing housing to increase the supply of rental housing. Zhuhai, Chongqing, Nanjing, and other cities have explicitly designated the acquired existing housing for use as rental housing. In February this year, Chongqing Jiayu Housing Leasing Co., Ltd. and the Chongqing Jianyu Housing Leasing Fund revealed that they would acquire 4,207 housing units for the rental market; by the end of June, the ** leasing project had been put into use.

　　Since the beginning of this year, Nanjing City has launched two rounds of "trade-in" for existing housing, with Nanjing Anju Construction Group and others as the acquisition entities. Nanjing Anju Construction Group previously revealed that the first pilot batch involved the acquisition of 2,000 existing housing units, with plans to bring in qualified entities for leasing operations.

　　Second, incorporating the acquired existing housing into the affordable housing system. For example, in Zhengzhou, led by the local government, the state-owned platform Chengfa Group acquires second-hand homes from residents and then renovates them into affordable rental housing.

　　Shenyang City recently solicited from society completed existing commercial housing projects for use as affordable housing, to alleviate housing difficulties for new citizens, young people, wage-earning groups, and talent introduced by the city.

　　Fuzhou state-owned enterprise Fuzhou Anzhu Development Co., Ltd. has undertaken the task of acquiring existing housing in Fuzhou and converting it into affordable rental housing. It is understood that the company has previously acquired about 5,000 existing housing units.

　　On August 7, Shenzhen Anju Group Co., Ltd. issued a solicitation notice on acquiring commercial housing for use as affordable housing. The scope of housing solicitation covers residential, apartment, dormitory, and other properties of a commercial housing nature within Shenzhen (excluding the Shenshan Special Cooperation Zone).

　　Third, using the acquired existing housing as targeted resettlement housing. Zengcheng District of Guangzhou City previously issued a "Notice on Soliciting Registrations for Eligible Commercial Resettlement Housing for the Guangzhou (Xintang) to Shanwei Railway Project (Xintang Section)." According to the notice, the railway project plans to purchase market-based commercial housing as resettlement housing for the project and solicit eligible residential housing (real estate enterprises) from society.

　　According to statistics from the China Index Academy, more than 10 cities have currently issued notices soliciting commercial housing for use as affordable housing. According to statistics from the Centaline Property Research Institute, as of the end of July this year, more than 60 cities in China had introduced policies related to state-owned capital acquiring existing commercial housing for use as affordable housing, including megacities and super-large cities such as Guangzhou, Chongqing, Hangzhou, and Zhengzhou, as well as counties and county-level cities such as Lujiang and Jiyuan.

　　State-owned capital "housing acquisition" is accelerating on the ground, but it also faces many challenges.

　　Huang Yu, executive vice president of the China Index Academy, pointed out that the policy direction of "boosting demand + destocking" in the real estate market is now clear. The implementation of policies related to "destocking" helps ease corporate funding pressure and also helps restore market sentiment.

　　However, in the implementation process, Huang Yu cautioned that issues such as acquisition prices, supply-demand mismatches, and capital costs may affect the effectiveness of policy implementation, and relevant policies will still need to be further improved in the future.