2016年CRI Deputies Discuss Uneven Home Market Recovery

 

Reducing housing inventories¹ has been set as one of the five main goals of the supply-side structural² reform program established at this year's Central Economic Work Conference.

Deputies attending this year's National People's Congress have been recommending that any policy shifts need to be based on local conditions.

Calls are also being made to try to bring market speculation³ under control.

Communist Party of China Shanghai chief Han Zheng, a member of the National People's Congress, says addressing the issue in his city requires a dual-track approach.

"Because Shanghai has a population of more than 24 million, we need to deal with two different issues to try to make adjustments: These areas include the market and the law. The local housing market in Shanghai needs to be convinced to focus on allowing people to find affordable⁴ homes. When it comes to the law, we should be taking steps to try to ensure low-income families are given every opportunity to access housing. Anyone found shutting people out of affordable housing in an illegal way should be punished. This is what will guarantee a healthy and stable property market."

Traditionally, housing in China has been considered a safe investment, compared to the stock markets or other investments.

While the market has been sporadic⁵, housing prices appear to have bottomed out in the second-half of last year after declining for well over a year.

Home prices in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen surged nearly 52 percent in January.

Prices in Shanghai increased close to 18 percent.

But while property prices appear to be rebounding⁶ in the major centers, stats suggest the property market in the smaller centers - the 2nd, 3rd and 4th tier cities in China - have not kept pace.

The uneven⁷ recovery is prompting suggestions that the government needs to take a more targeted approach to its stimulus⁸.

NPC deputy Lv Wei.

"Right now inventory⁹ reduction should be focused on the third and fourth-tier cities. Big cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou should be focused instead on ensuring the properties that are available are affordable. Steps need to be taken to try to prevent people from taking advantage of broad-based government stimulus packages. If we open up too many options, people are going to take advantage. This is going to lead to another round of overheating in the property market."

Another concern being raised is the availability of financing.

Huang Qifan, Mayor of Chongqing, is suggesting there needs to be regulations on non-bank lending when it comes to down payments.

"Property developers or their agents have been too active in providing loans to home buyers to cover their down payments. This could lead to a large-scale investment bubble. We don't want another situation like we say in the United States with the subprime mortgage crisis. Inventory reduction and structural reforms are what's needed."

It's being reported authorities are working on legislation to eliminate non-bank lending for down payments in China.

The subprime mortgage crisis in the United States saw companies engage in predatory lending, convincing would-be home-buyers with little equity¹⁰ to purchase homes on contracts which would require a massive 'baloon payment' after a certain period of time.

Credit defaults from this practice were the stimulus for the global financial crisis in 2009.

For CRI, this is Luo Bin¹¹.

1 inventories   

n.总结( inventory的名词复数 )；细账；存货清单（或财产目录）的编制

参考例句：

• In other cases, such as inventories, inputs and outputs are both continuous. 在另一些情况下，比如存货，其投入和产出都是持续不断的。
• The store must clear its winter inventories by April 1st. 该店必须在4月1日前售清冬季存货。

2 structural   

adj.构造的，组织的，建筑（用）的

参考例句：

• The storm caused no structural damage.风暴没有造成建筑结构方面的破坏。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities.北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。

3 speculation   

n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机

参考例句：

• Her mind is occupied with speculation.她的头脑忙于思考。
• There is widespread speculation that he is going to resign.人们普遍推测他要辞职。

4 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

5 sporadic   

adj.偶尔发生的 [反]regular；分散的

参考例句：

• The sound of sporadic shooting could still be heard.仍能听见零星的枪声。
• You know this better than I.I received only sporadic news about it.你们比我更清楚，而我听到的只是零星消息。

6 rebounding   

蹦跳运动

参考例句：

• The strength of negative temperature concrete is tested with supersonic-rebounding method. 本文将超声回弹综合法用于负温混凝土强度检测。
• The fundamental of basketball includes shooting, passing and catching, rebounding, etc. 篮球运动中最基本的东西包括投篮，传接球，篮板球等。

7 uneven   

adj.不平坦的，不规则的，不均匀的

参考例句：

• The sidewalk is very uneven—be careful where you walk.这人行道凹凸不平—走路时请小心。
• The country was noted for its uneven distribution of land resources.这个国家以土地资源分布不均匀出名。

8 stimulus   

n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物

参考例句：

• Regard each failure as a stimulus to further efforts.把每次失利看成对进一步努力的激励。
• Light is a stimulus to growth in plants.光是促进植物生长的一个因素。

9 inventory   

n.详细目录，存货清单

参考例句：

• Some stores inventory their stock once a week.有些商店每周清点存货一次。
• We will need to call on our supplier to get more inventory.我们必须请供应商送来更多存货。

10 equity   

n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票

参考例句：

• They shared the work of the house with equity.他们公平地分担家务。
• To capture his equity,Murphy must either sell or refinance.要获得资产净值，墨菲必须出售或者重新融资。

11 bin   

n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件

参考例句：

• He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
• He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。