Making room for house seekers

Jilin province recently introduced a document asking cities to help farmers buy houses by extending subsidies and loans. The idea is to further stabilize the realty market.

The authorities of Changchun, capital of Jilin, were told to extend subsidies to key college graduates and national-level talents for buying houses. Temporary existing policies on the same aspect were extended till June 30 this year.

It is necessary that the real estate market is regulated at the provincial as well as central administrative level so as to ensure that it develops in a healthy manner. And the provincial government took the measures on the basis of actual condition of the realty market.

Data show that the total transaction volume of houses in Jilin has shrunk in the second half of 2021. So has the average price of houses bought and sold. Jilin is one of many provinces facing this problem and many provinces have taken measures in this regard.

In Guilin in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, those purchasing new houses get subsidies in the form of consumption coupons, while Xinxiang and Kaifeng in Henan province subsidize purchases by giving tax discounts.

While such measures are good, the local governments should remember that houses are for living in, not for speculation. They should thus draw a line between those buying a house because they need it and those doing so to make money from it.

That’s an important lesson, as there was a time when even local governments sold land to developers in the hope that realty prices would rise and they could make money.

Local governments must restructure the industry to end the reliance on land sales, and instead raise revenue through other means. It is good to adopt macrocontrol policies for the realty industry, but the principle — that houses are for living in — should always be upheld.