We believe the adjustments in real estate policies since August have arrived just in time to prevent housing sales from declining further. Following the Politburo meeting at the end of July that highlighted the major changes in supply and demand dynamics in China’s property market, a slew of measures was rolled out to adjust and optimize real estate policies, including a cut to the floor of down payment ratio on first- and second-home purchases, relaxed standards for identifying first-home mortgages across first-tier cities, and lower interest rates on existing mortgages. In our view, the implementation of such policies would unleash part of the pent-up demand from first-home buyers. September to date, new house and pre-owned home transactions in Beijing and Shanghai have increased considerably.
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