Housing Market Tightened

Beijing and three other major cities launched housing curbs on March 17 as part of the larger effort to rein in China’s real estate industry where home prices have skyrocketed, threatening to create a property bubble.

On March 17, Beijing raised the down payment requirements for second-home buyers from 50 percent to 60 percent of the full price.

Now, those who buy a second home are defined as those who have either residential property ownership or a mortgage record. In the past, if buyers whose mortgage had been paid off had applied for a new mortgage for a second home, they were regarded as first-time buyers.

Like the Beijing municipality, Guangzhou, capital of south China’s Guangdong Province, Shijiazhuang, capital of north China’s Hebei Province, and Zhengzhou, capital of central China’s Henan Province, announced similar measures to rein in speculative buying in the residential segment of the property industry, thereby ensuring that housing remains a necessity for one’s own use, rather than a form of investment.

China’s property market in major cities continued to stabilize after the authorities took a string of measures to curb price spikes, according to an official survey released on March 18.

Of the 70 large- and mediumsized cities surveyed, more than half of them in February witnessed a month-on-month price decline or a mild price uptick of less than 0.5 percent for new residential housing, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Among those cities, 12 of them saw a month-on-month price drop, with new residential housing prices in two cities remaining flat in February, said NBS senior statistician Liu Jianwei.

Another 37 cities witnessed month-on-month price increases of less than 0.5 percent for newly-built homes in February, while 19 cities saw home price gains higher than 0.5 percent last month. official data showed on March 16.

Total FDI in the first two months stood at 139 billion yuan ($20.2 billion), down 2.3 percent from the previous year, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said in an online statement.

Investment from European Union countries grew 13.8 percent in the first two months year on year, said the MOFCOM.

Most investment went to the service and manufacturing sectors, with investment in utility services rising 184 percent year on year.

Meanwhile, 1,850 new foreignfunded enterprises were established on the Chinese mainland in February, up 33.3 percent compared with the same period last year.

On the other side of the equation, China’s overall non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) slumped by 52.8 percent year on year to $13.4 billion during the first two months of 2017, mainly dragged down by a plunge in sectors such as the offshore property market, culture, sports and entertainment.

Analysts said the drop is temporary and that the nation’s “going global” strategy has not changed.

“The slide in ODI is temporary, given easing pressure on China’s capital outflow and a long-held goal of internationalizing the renminbi,” said Morgan Stanley economist Zhang Jun.

“The government remains firm in encouraging Chinese companies to go overseas and promote the renminbi as an international currency. So we are not going to see a downward trend in ODI,” he said.

Economies along the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative (Belt and Road Initiative) and emerging industries have become the hot draws for China’s ODI in the first two months, as Beijing steers toward a healthier and more rational ODI portfolio.

Chinese investments in regions along the Belt and Road routes grew by 5.8 percent year on year to $1.79 billion in the first two months of the