Beijing released a major real estate policy overhaul late on the evening of August 7. Several departments jointly issued a notice stating that, starting from August 8, 2026, the social insurance or individual income tax payment period for non-Beijing households purchasing commercial housing inside the Fifth Ring Road will be reduced from two years to one year. This move further relaxes the city's purchase restrictions.
Alongside the loosening of purchase limits, Beijing has made significant adjustments to its housing provident fund policies. These include increased loan support for purchasing green buildings and for families with multiple children, as well as adjustments to the "transfer with mortgage" process and renovations extraction. Industry experts believe this new policy could drive a phased recovery in transaction volumes for new and existing homes inside the Fifth Ring Road, potentially accelerating the pace of first-time homebuyers entering the market.
The notice, titled "Notice on Further Optimizing and Adjusting the City's Real Estate Policies," encompasses three key areas: optimizing housing purchase restrictions, improving property gift policies, and increasing housing provident fund support, totaling seven specific measures. The most impactful change is the adjustment to purchase restrictions, which now requires non-Beijing households to have a continuous social insurance or tax payment record of at least one year before buying commercial housing inside the Fifth Ring Road. Yan Yuejin, a deputy director at the Shanghai E-House Real Estate Research Institute, noted that this is another substantive relaxation of Beijing's purchase restrictions, effectively lowering the threshold citywide to one year of social insurance payments. This change directly expands the pool of eligible non-Beijing buyers and could bring forward their market entry. It also aligns with earlier policies that reduced the threshold to one year for areas outside the Fifth Ring Road, unifying the requirements across the city.
The new policy also addresses property gifts. Parents can now gift their Beijing commercial housing to their children without verifying the child's purchase eligibility. Yan Yuejin explained that this removes the previously strict qualification checks in the gifting process, enhancing the liquidity of gifted properties. It helps family members obtain new home purchase qualifications, representing a practical measure to release reasonable housing demand.
The third major change involves the housing provident fund. Loan limits have been increased: for a single contributor, the maximum loan for a first home is 1.2 million yuan, and for a second home, 1 million yuan. For couples where both are contributors, the maximum is 2.4 million yuan for a first home and 2 million yuan for a second. Additionally, loan limits can be further increased under certain conditions: households with registered residence in the six central urban districts buying a first home outside these areas can get an additional 200,000 yuan; buying a home that meets green building standards can add 400,000 yuan; and households with two or more children can also get an extra 400,000 yuan. Yan Yuejin called this a significant policy that strongly supports diverse housing consumption through the provident fund. The loan increases for green buildings and multi-child families amplify the fund's role in safeguarding and stimulating housing demand, helping to boost the purchasing capacity and willingness of these groups.
Other provident fund changes include expanding the "transfer with mortgage" program to cover existing homes with Beijing provident fund loans, and allowing withdrawals for home renovations, specifically enabling extraction of up to 50% of the renovation cost. The China Index Academy summarized that this policy package offers substantial deregulation, significantly raising provident fund loan limits, allowing multiple conditions to stack for higher limits, linking loan amounts to contribution years, implementing "transfer with mortgage" for provident fund loans, and adding a new withdrawal option for renovations. Overall, the policy adjustments are quite significant.
Beijing's real estate market, particularly the secondary market, has not performed poorly this year. In the first half of 2026, second-hand home transactions in Beijing reached 93,583 units, up 5.7% year-on-year, the highest volume for the first half of the year since 2021. Transaction volumes from April to June were at their highest for those months in five years. The China Index Academy noted that unlike a typical seasonal surge, Beijing's second-hand market maintained its momentum into the second quarter, with volumes in April, May, and June hitting five-year highs, without a rapid post-boom decline. In July, traditionally a slow month, the market didn't see a significant drop. According to the Beijing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, over 14,000 second-hand homes were transacted in July, a 9.8% increase year-on-year. From January to July, cumulative transactions reached 107,000 units, up 6% year-on-year, also a five-year high for the period. Data from the China Index Academy shows that second-hand home listings in Beijing fell to 121,000 units at the end of June, down 18.5% from the peak last year. This decline in listings suggests easing supply pressure, which could pave the way for price stabilization.
Despite rising transaction volumes and falling listings, Beijing's market has underlying concerns. Yan Yuejin pointed out that while prices in first-tier cities have tentatively stopped falling, the recovery is fragile. The month-on-month growth in new and second-hand home prices, which briefly turned positive in late 2025 and early 2026, has shown signs of narrowing and weakening, with year-on-year figures still in negative territory. According to the China Index Academy's Baicheng Price Index, second-hand home prices in Beijing fell by a cumulative 3.46% in the first half of 2026, with average listing prices still declining. The rebound in transactions has not yet led to a broad stabilization of prices. For properties priced significantly above similar units, the sales cycle remains lengthy even with increased market activity. Yan Yuejin believes the market is still in a "policy-supported" phase, and Beijing's new policy responds to the need to consolidate the current market conditions in first-tier cities.
Industry experts widely expect the new policy to further stimulate market demand. The China Index Academy stated that following the Politburo meeting in late July, Beijing's quick policy rollout directly expands the pool of potential buyers. The increase in provident fund loan limits will also directly reduce the financial pressure of buying a home, benefiting the real estate market. In the short term, transaction volumes for both new and second-hand homes in Beijing are expected to improve as the policy's effects gradually materialize. Yan Yuejin added that the expansion of eligible buyers is likely to drive a phased increase in viewings and transactions for new and second-hand homes inside the Fifth Ring Road, potentially accelerating the pace of first-time homebuyers entering the market. In the medium term, this could activate the "sell one to buy one" replacement chain, and an increase in improvement-driven demand entering the market is crucial for the market's sustained recovery.
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