“The local government has displayed its determination and commitment of stabilising a steady market development in the biggest policy change in 14 years. So far, this has already incubated a surge in site visits to project sales offices and reportedly, purchases during the National Day holiday in Guangzhou.”

CARLBY XIE, SAVILLS RESEARCH

Guangzhou abolishes home-purchase restrictions (HPRs)

• In July, the central government empowered local governments to ease or remove the HPRs and scrap criteria for ordinary and non-ordinary housing, conditional on market practice in different cities.

• China announced to lower the mortgage rates for existing home loans by around 0.5 ppt and cut the down-payment ratio for second-home buyers to 15% on 24 September 2024.

• Effective on 30 September 2024, Guangzhou removed all the HPRs lasting for 14 years since October 2010.

• One notable residential land transaction was completed in Q3/2024. Poly Development acquired the AT080722 land plot in the International Financial City for RMB11.76 billion after 148 rounds of bidding on 29 September. Its accommodation value reached RMB66,957 psm, the second highest in history on the local market.

• Guangzhou’s first-hand residential supply increased by 17.6% QoQ to 1.46 million sqm while transaction volume decreased by 10.3% QoQ to 1.38 million sqm in Q3/2024.

• The average sales price of the Guangzhou first-hand residential market fell by 12.9% QoQ to RMB40,648 psm as of end-Q3/2024.