The new policies for the housing fund are being implemented intensively: from "property fee withdrawal" to "cross-border direct remittance," providing precise benefits directly to the people.

Why Can AI · Cross-Border Settlement Services Enhance the Housing Purchase Intentions of Hong Kong and Macau Residents?

CNR Beijing, April 1 — (Reporter Wang Ying) According to the China Central Radio and Television Station Economic Voice “World Finance” report, recently, many cities across the country have entered a period of intensive optimization of housing provident fund policies. Hangzhou significantly increased loan limits and included property fees in the withdrawal scope; Guangzhou was the first in the country to implement cross-border RMB settlement services for the provident fund. From buying to renting, from local to cross-border, these new policies bring real financial benefits to ordinary people.

Recently, many cities nationwide have introduced optimized provident fund policies. For example, in Hangzhou, the provident fund loan limit has been greatly increased. According to the latest policy, the maximum loan amount for the provident fund has been raised from 1.3 million yuan to 1.8 million yuan, with individual employee loans not exceeding 900k yuan, and the calculation multiple adjusted from 15 times to 20 times. At the same time, for eligible groups and property types, the upper limit can be increased cumulatively by different types, with a maximum combined increase of 70%, reaching 3.06 million yuan.

Regarding the impact of this adjustment on housing demand, Zhongyuan Real Estate Chief Analyst Zhang Dawei analyzed: “For first-time buyers, higher loan limits can effectively reduce the down payment pressure and monthly mortgage burden, especially for key groups such as new residents, young people, and families with multiple children, further lowering the threshold for home purchases and encouraging those who were previously hesitant or had reasonable self-occupancy needs to enter the market more quickly. For improved housing demand, the increase in loan limits can also reduce the proportion of commercial loans used, saving significant interest expenses, easing financial pressure, and effectively activating the chain of replacement demand.”

As the first city nationwide to implement cross-border RMB settlement for the provident fund, Guangzhou’s innovative service allows Hong Kong and Macau employees to withdraw their provident funds without the hassle of domestic transfers. Zhang Dawei said: “For talent mobility, this policy removes bottlenecks in fund remittance after Hong Kong and Macau residents pay into Guangzhou’s provident fund, making procedures simpler, costs lower, and funds safer; in terms of real estate market linkage, the policy also helps to boost the willingness of Hong Kong and Macau residents to buy property in Guangzhou and other mainland cities within the Greater Bay Area, promoting the integration of the entire Bay Area housing market; overall, this policy can further strengthen Guangzhou’s core role within the Greater Bay Area urban cluster.”

Yan Yuejin, Deputy Director of the Shanghai E-House Research Institute, believes that behind these series of new policies, there is a shift in the logic of the provident fund system reform.

Yan Yuejin said: “The basic positioning of the provident fund is to actively support traditional housing consumption. Using the provident fund for property fees and cross-border settlement is linked to many macro policies. This also indicates that current provident fund policies are no longer just traditional financial policies for housing; they can better serve macroeconomic and social development.”

From “dedicated for home purchase” to “residential consumption,” from local deposits to cross-border direct transfers, the function boundaries of the provident fund are being redefined. Yan Yuejin describes this trend as a “shift from small wallets to big wallets,” believing: “From the traditional support for home buying to overall coverage of residential consumption, including cross-regional facilitation, this is in line with the reform and optimization direction of the housing provident fund system. The new policy trend essentially reflects the ‘shift from small wallets to big wallets’ of the provident fund.”

Currently, besides Hangzhou and Guangzhou, many other cities are promoting the optimization of provident fund “increasing limits, expanding coverage, and improving convenience.” While these policies can effectively reduce residents’ burdens and release housing demand, to fundamentally activate housing consumption potential and stabilize real estate market expectations, coordinated efforts across multiple policies are needed. Zhang Dawei stated: “Transaction links can also appropriately reduce deed tax, individual income tax, and other taxes and fees, as well as lower replacement costs, and unblock some bottlenecks in second-hand housing circulation. Meanwhile, continuous signals supporting reasonable housing should be released to stabilize market expectations. Only when provident fund policies are coordinated with a series of systems including finance, land, taxation, and social security can housing demand be truly activated, promoting the long-term steady and healthy development of the real estate market.”

Looking ahead, there is still broad room for reform of the provident fund system. Yan Yuejin believes that future efforts can focus on continuous breakthroughs in deposit convenience and expanding application scenarios: “The overall direction is very clear—to enable more people to enjoy better policy convenience when contributing to the provident fund. At the same time, the scope of fund use should be continuously expanded, or the application scenarios broadened, so that ordinary people can truly benefit from their provident funds.”