Boost the confidence of the real estate industry, and the policies at both ends of supply and demand are constantly making efforts.
The first financial reporter learned that Nanjing recently issued a relevant notice that the pilot uses bank guarantee to replace a certain proportion of commercial housing pre-sale funds, and the amount can be as high as 60%.
In February, after the release of the new regulations on the supervision of commercial housing pre-sale funds at the national level, Changsha, Xiamen, Qingdao and other places successively issued relevant rules. Overall, the general direction is to improve the flexibility and efficiency of the use of pre-sale funds on the premise of ensuring that the liquidity risk is controllable.
In contrast, the loose degree of the detailed rules in Nanjing is not large, which will effectively alleviate the short-term capital pressure of real estate enterprises, but whether the corresponding risk will be transferred to the bank has also triggered a discussion in the market.
Nanjing pilot bank guarantee replaces pre-sale funds
It is understood that the full name of the above-mentioned document on loosening the restrictions on sale funds in Nanjing is the notice on the pilot use of bank guarantee for the supervision of pre-sale funds of commercial housing (hereinafter referred to as the notice), which is jointly issued by Nanjing housing security and real estate bureau and Nanjing Branch of the central bank.
The relevant staff of Nanjing Branch of the central bank confirmed to reporters that they did see this document recently, but it was mainly led by the real estate bureau and was not fully disclosed. In this regard, the reporter called the Nanjing real estate bureau. As of press time, the phone was not connected.
The supervision of commercial housing pre-sale funds refers to the third-party supervision of commercial housing pre-sale funds by the real estate administrative department in conjunction with the bank. The developer shall deposit the pre-sale funds into the special bank supervision account, which can only be used for the construction of the project, and shall not withdraw or use them at will.
The fundamental purpose of this is to protect the interests of property buyers and ensure that real estate enterprises can deliver their houses on time without uncompleted projects.
For the amount of capital supervision, the modes determined by various regions mainly include 10% ~ 40% of the total amount of advance receipts, floating upward according to a certain proportion based on the project cost, or based on the construction cost per square meter.
The “bank guarantee” launched in Nanjing can be regarded as a kind of credit endorsement provided by banks for real estate developers. If the developer fails to pay the regulatory funds as scheduled in accordance with the agreement, the bank shall pay or bear the corresponding compensation instead.
According to the requirements of the notice, developers can replace the regulatory funds in the pre-sale capital supervision account of new commercial housing with bank guarantee in the same amount, but the replacement amount shall not exceed 60% of the pre-sale capital supervision amount.
At the same time, after the developer applies for the replacement of the equivalent capital guarantee, the balance in the pre-sale capital supervision account must also meet the demand for construction funds within the next year of the project.
It is understood that the development enterprise can obtain the appropriation within 3 working days after completing the filing procedures of the letter of guarantee. The purpose of the fund is limited to the reasonable capital flow of the development enterprise in Nanjing, which shall be recognized by the regulatory authority.
The notice said that this is to gradually establish a classified supervision mechanism for commercial housing pre-sale funds and improve the use efficiency of pre-sale funds.
An insider of a top30 real estate enterprise in South China told reporters that using bank guarantee to replace funds is not new, but it is also innovative, that is, using the enterprise’s comprehensive credit to replace some cash to release more liquidity. While “ensuring delivery”, it is conducive to promoting the debt restructuring of some real estate enterprises.
However, will this increase the risk of banks? Industry insiders believe that the bank’s issuance of letter of guarantee will tend to developers with better comprehensive credit, with a certain threshold and controllable overall risk.
The notice requires that within two years before the date of applying for the use of the letter of guarantee, the development enterprises shall not receive administrative punishment for the illegal use of commercial housing pre-sale supervision funds in the city, and the commercial housing projects to be applied for shall be free of judicial freezing, illegal fund deduction, arrears of project funds and arrears of migrant workers’ wages.
A senior researcher in the real estate industry also told reporters: “if (the document) is really implemented, it can effectively alleviate the short-term liquidity of the industry.” He believes that compared with the sales stimulus policy with slow transmission, the liberalization of pre-sale funds can be “emergency”, but it needs a large number of cities to do it together.
many places launch detailed rules for the supervision of pre-sale funds
At present, many cities have introduced detailed rules for the supervision of commercial housing pre-sale funds. In general, they have increased the flexibility of fund use and benefited the cash flow of real estate development enterprises.
In February this year, the state issued new regulations on the supervision of pre-sale funds of commercial housing, which made it clear that the supervision amount of pre-sale funds was determined according to the construction cost of commercial housing projects, the amount of construction contracts and the conditions for the delivery and use of projects. After ensuring the funds required for the completion and delivery of real estate projects, the funds exceeding the regulatory limit can be withdrawn and used by real estate development enterprises.
The introduction of the new regulations is conducive to the use of commercial housing pre-sale funds by real estate enterprises, and increases the flexibility of fund use on the premise of ensuring project construction, which can improve the use efficiency of pre-sale funds and reduce some potential liquidity risks.
Since March, Changsha, Qingdao, Xiamen and other cities have issued local rules.
For example, Changsha requires that the pre-sale funds of newly-built commercial houses be transferred to the special account for supervision of pre-sale funds corresponding to each project immediately after the funds are cleared through the special account for unified pre-sale funds clearing. Under normal circumstances, after the pre-sale funds arrive at the special clearing account, they will be transferred to the special account for supervision of pre-sale funds corresponding to the project on the same day.
Qingdao saw in the draft for comments that the amount of regulatory funds is expected to cover the funds required for the completion and delivery of the project.
Xiamen detailed rules mentioned that the initial amount of pre-sale funds retained in the pre-sale funds supervision account is calculated as 120% of the total project cost of the pre-sale project, including 20% of the risk fund of the total project cost). The amount of subsequent retained funds shall be determined according to the project progress.
Moreover, through the optimization of the supervision process, on the basis of the unchanged key supervision quota, the remaining funds in the special account for pre-sale fund supervision after reaching the reserved deposit quota can be withdrawn by the real estate enterprise without going through the withdrawal procedures with the regulatory authority .
Recently, Fuzhou has also issued 18 new regulations to help the market players in the housing and construction industry solve their difficulties. Among them, all localities are required to implement the regulations on the supervision of pre-sale funds, optimize local supervision methods, increase payment nodes , support the development enterprises to use commercial bank guarantee to replace pre-sale supervision funds , and encourage differentiated supervision according to the enterprise operation and credit evaluation.
supply and demand continue to receive good news
In addition to the new regulations on the supervision of pre-sale funds, more favorable policies for the supply side of the real estate industry have been launched recently.
At the press conference on financial statistics for the first quarter held by the central bank on April 14, Zou LAN, director of the financial market department of the central bank, said that after the exposure of Evergrande risk, financial institutions had a short-term stress response. Under the active guidance of the people’s Bank of China, the national real estate development loan increased by about 150 billion yuan in the first quarter of this year compared with the fourth quarter of last year, compared with the scale of new houses under construction in the same period, The balance of development loans is also at a high level.
M & A financing in the real estate industry is also accelerating. According to incomplete statistics by reporters, the financing amount of real estate M & a through various channels has exceeded 200 billion yuan, an increase of nearly 100 billion yuan compared with a month ago. Among them, Agricultural Bank Of China Limited(601288) , Bank Of Communications Co.Ltd(601328) , China Merchants Bank Co.Ltd(600036) , Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co.Ltd(600000) and other banks, as well as AMCs such as Oriental assets and Great Wall assets, raise M & a funds by issuing M & A bonds, while real estate enterprises successively issue M & A bonds or sign M & a loan cooperation agreements with banks, benefiting both state-owned and private enterprises.
Financing funds can alleviate the short-term liquidity pressure, while operating funds are the main support for long-term sustainable development.
Moreover, the real estate demand side of the stimulus policy continues, in addition to mortgage interest rates, down payment ratio, housing subsidies, and more to join the “five restrictions” deregulation army, such as sales restrictions, purchase restrictions, and loan restrictions.
Zou LAN revealed that since March, due to the weakening of market demand, banks in more than 100 cities have independently lowered mortgage interest rates according to market changes and their own business conditions, with an average range of 20 to 60 basis points.
In addition, some provincial market interest rate pricing self-discipline mechanisms also cooperate with the regulatory requirements of local governments. According to the actual situation of the city and within the scope of national policies, the lower limit of down payment proportion and interest rate of the city have been lowered. Zou Lan also stressed that under the epidemic, financial institutions should flexibly adjust the repayment arrangements such as housing mortgage and reasonably postpone the repayment period.
Statistics from a number of third-party institutions show that the transaction heat of the national real estate market has rebounded significantly, and the first and second tier cities are more leading, and the de urbanization of the third and fourth tier cities is under pressure. In addition, according to the latest data of the Bureau of statistics on April 15, although the sales price of commercial housing in 70 large and medium-sized cities decreased year-on-year and increased, the number of cities decreased month on month.
Local policies for urban development are still deepening. On April 15, Dongguan, Huzhou and other places once again announced the new deal of the real estate market to support the reasonable housing needs of residents. From the financial data in March, the medium and long-term credit of residents who respond to the mortgage demand of residents is still under pressure. However, some institutions predict that the demand side stimulus policies around the country are expected to be implemented in the second quarter, and there will be an important turning point in the situation of CITIC loans in.
