Following the introduction of various property market adjustment policies in many places across the country, "encouraging government agencies, enterprises and institutions to purchase commercial housing in groups" has become a hot word in the market recently. According to incomplete statistics, there are already Zhongshan, Guangdong, Tonglu, Zhejiang, Tongling, Anhui, More than 20 cities including Pu'er in Yunnan and Shaoxing in Zhejiang have released relevant policies or activities. Industry insiders believe that group purchasing of commercial housing is a new option for bulk destocking in the local property market.
Many places issued documents on group purchasing of housing
A few days ago, the Qingdao Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau of Shandong Province’s document on launching a “hand-in-hand” special-price housing activity attracted widespread market attention. The document shows that the Qingdao Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau guided the Real Estate Industry Association to organize a series of Golden Autumn Home Buying Festival activities across the city, which targeted groups such as medical workers, teachers, active retired military personnel, advanced models, public security officers, and large enterprise talents. Carry out group purchasing activities for special-priced houses, and launch some special-priced houses by high-quality real estate companies to meet the house-purchasing needs of different groups. The bureau will further connect with development companies based on the determined housing supply to ensure the greatest discounts.
Chen Wenjing, market research director of the Index Business Department of the China Index Research Institute, told a reporter from China Consumer News that Qingdao’s group-buying activities for special-priced houses targeted at specific groups of people are in line with the group-buying policies that have been introduced in many places before. Similar, all for quick inventory removal.
According to incomplete statistics, since this year, there have been cases including Zhongshan in Guangdong, Tonglu in Zhejiang, Tongling in Anhui, Pu'er in Yunnan, Bazhong in Sichuan, Huanggang in Hubei, Changchun in Jilin, Lianyungang in Jiangsu, Hangzhou in Zhejiang, Baise in Guangxi, Gansu More than 20 cities including Qingyang, Wuzhou in Guangxi, Shaoxing in Zhejiang, and Nanning in Guangxi have released policies or activities related to group purchasing housing.
For example, on October 10, the General Office of the Guizhou Provincial People's Government issued the "Guizhou Province Action Plan to Promote the Resumption of Work, Production and Market to Promote Economic Recovery and Boost", which mentioned encouraging employees of government agencies, enterprises and institutions to carry out commercial housing development. Group buying and group buying preferential prices are not included in the range of registered price decreases for commercial housing.
Changchun City, Jilin Province issued the "Notice on Several Measures to Further Promote the Stable Development of the Real Estate Market" to support the centralized bulk purchase of commercial housing. It mentioned that government agencies, state-owned enterprises and institutions, colleges and universities, scientific research institutes and social groups should be supported to contact real estate development companies and organize centralized bulk purchase activities of commercial housing.
The Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau of Meishan City, Sichuan Province has issued the "Supporting Policies for Group Purchase of New Commercial Housing in Meishan Outside the City". Party and government agencies, enterprises and institutions and social groups outside the city can purchase 30 yuan in one time within the scope of Meishan City. Those who purchase more than 100 units of new commercial housing can enjoy a 3% discount on the purchase price; those who purchase more than 50 units at one time can get a 4% discount; those who purchase more than 100 units at one time can get a 5% discount.
Group buying profits require “real money”
“The current purpose of launching group buying activities for commercial housing in various places is to promote the overall market activity and sales, and accelerate the recovery of market confidence. Group buying The main method is to provide discounts and promotions on real estate prices to encourage home buyers to enter the market," Zhang Bo, director of the 58 Anjuke Real Estate Research Institute, told a reporter from China Consumer News.
Can group purchasing of commercial housing really bring benefits to homebuyers? After checking the policies or activities released by various places, reporters from China Consumer News found that the city with the largest group purchase housing discounts is undoubtedly Wuzhou City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Wuzhou City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region issued the "Notice on Ten Measures to Promote the Healthy Development of the Real Estate Industry" on September 25, which mentioned that from the date of issuance of this measure to December 31, 2022 On the same day, on the principle of voluntariness of real estate development enterprises, a group of high-quality real estates were selected and organized to carry out group purchase discount activities for the public. Group purchases of more than 5 units can enjoy discounts. The discount rate for commercial houses participating in group purchase discount activities shall not exceed 30% of the registered price. .
According to the reporter's understanding, before last year, many cities had taken corresponding measures to significantly reduce the prices of real estate properties. Some cities directly issued price reduction orders, setting a "lower limit" for housing prices, requiring that the price of projects should not be reduced by more than 15 % or 10%. At present, group buying policies issued by various places are basically not subject to price reduction orders, and group buying prices are not included in the statistical range of registered price declines for commercial housing.
“The core of group buying housing is that developers can provide different levels of price concessions to home-buying groups, and at the same time, the government has relaxed the price limit order to a certain extent.” Chen Wenjing told a reporter from China Consumer News, "In the current downturn in the real estate market, how to speed up house transactions is the top priority for developers. In order to attract home buyers, real money must be offered on price."
The reporter's inquiry found that, The price of new houses for sale in Wuzhou City is generally between 4,000 yuan and 6,000 yuan per square meter. If the group purchase price can be discounted by 30% on the basis of the registered price, it means that the price per square meter will be reduced by 1,200-1,800 yuan, with 100 square meters. For example, if you take a house like Mi's, you can save hundreds of thousands of yuan on the total price.
“Group buying is a means of destocking the current property market in batches and activating the housing transaction market.” Yan Yuejin, research director of the Think Tank Center of E-House Research Institute, told a reporter from China Consumer News, “The income of public officials is relatively high. Stable, at present, this group can easily be regarded as a new force in driving demand for real estate purchases.”
The effect of the policy remains to be seen
Although more than 20 cities have introduced group purchase policies, The effect of the policy remains to be seen.
Zhang Bo said that the role of group buying will vary significantly from place to place. If supply exceeds demand in a city, the boosting effect of group buying will be relatively limited; for some cities that have hit bottom and begun to rebound, the impact of group buying will be The effect will be more obvious.
Take Tonglu County in Zhejiang Province as an example. According to the "Qianjiang Evening News" report, one month after the group buying policy was implemented, there has been no successful case. Developers said that even if they are willing to give price concessions, they must reach the group buying level. The conditions are still relatively difficult. A developer said: "Tonglu has limited online pricing, and the lowest discount can only be 15% off the registered price, and cannot be discounted any further. Although the transaction volume of real estate properties is higher than before, there are still not many customers."
“Most of the groups that have introduced group buying policies are third- and fourth-tier cities or suburban counties in second-tier cities. For these cities, they are facing greater pressure on the property market, and more powerful policies are needed to stabilize the property market.” A real estate agent industry analysts said.
Yan Yuejin said that what needs to be vigilant is that relevant departments need to be more cautious in the selection of group-purchased properties. All types of group-purchased houses must ensure that they comply with the sales rules, and some illegal or non-compliant projects cannot be taken away. When doing group buying, you should also pay attention to avoid group buying of slow-selling properties or properties with potential unfinished properties, so as not to frustrate the confidence of home buyers again.
Guan Rongxue, an analyst at the Zhuge Housing Data Research Center, also believes that there are certain differences in the scale of group buying and the intensity of discounts. At the same time, whether personal preference can reach consensus is one of the keys to the success of group buying. The implementation of group buying requires clarifying the preferential ranges given by different scales, and at the same time strictly controlling the review of home purchase qualifications.