(Yicai) March 5 -- The Chinese government will loosen restrictions in the real estate sector and hand local governments greater autonomy in the purchase and storage of housing on the market to help stabilize the property sector, Premier Li Qiang said today in the government work report presented at the Two Sessions, the country’s annual policy setting meetings.

The government will implement a moderately loose monetary policy, with well-timed cuts in banks’ reserve requirement ratios and interest rates, along with making stronger efforts to promote the healthy development of the property market, the report said. Specific measures include speeding up the renovation of urban villages, revitalizing land and properties that are standing idle, and expanding the scope of refinancing of affordable housing.

This year’s policies pay greater attention to the adjustment of supply and demand, and include more specific measures, Feng Bo, vice president of the Chengdu Urban Construction and Development Research Institute, told Yicai. Lifting curbs such as purchase restrictions will help unleash housing demand in the four biggest first-tier cities, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

Nationwide investment in real estate plunged 10.6 percent in 2024 from a year earlier to CNY10 trillion (USD1.3 trillion), and housing sales plunged 17.1 percent to CNY9.6 trillion (USD1.3 trillion), according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics. By the end of 2024, the country’s unsold inventory of residential properties stood at 753.2 million square meters, a jump of 11.9 percent from a year earlier.

Giving local governments more autonomy in the purchase and storage of existing housing is a significant breakthrough, said Li Yujia, chief researcher at the Guangdong Urban-Rural Planning and Design Research Institute. Previously, property acquisition had been slow due to restrictions on who could purchase and the low prices. The new policy will help speed up the acquisition of housing already on the market, which will play an important role in stabilizing housing prices.

The report also stressed the need for reasonable control of the supply of land for new developments. The government intends to ease imbalances between supply and demand by controlling land supply while at the same time guiding market expectations, Li said.

In addition, the report highlighted the need to meet the public’s demand for higher-quality living spaces, and encouraged the construction of safe, comfortable, green and smart housing, indicating a shift toward the upgrading of the real estate sector.

Editor: Kim Taylor