SHANGHAI will continue to curb property speculation while increasing the supply of residential properties, according to the 13th Five-Year (2016-2020) Plan. This will ensure stable and healthy development of the market, the city government said yesterday.

By 2020, about 1.7 million new housing units will be added to the market, an increase of 60 percent from the previous five-year period, it said.

Around 450,000 units will be commodity houses — residential properties excluding those in the city’s affordable housing program — some 550,000 will be affordable homes, and the remaining 700,000 units are for leasing purposes.

A total of 5,500 hectares of residential land will be released to the market, an increase of 20 percent from the previous five-year period. About 2,000 hectares will be designated for commodity housing, 1,700 hectares for rental homes and the remainder for affordable housing.

“It is a good attempt by the government to largely increase the supply of residential leasing units, which will provide a new option particularly for young people,” said Joe Zhou, head of research at JLL China. “Compared with renting from individual owners, leasing homes from developers or leasing companies is certainly more attractive to tenants.”

By 2020, according to the 13th Five-Year Plan, a housing system under which sale and lease is of equal importance should be established in the city, with stable and moderate growth in the supply of commodity housing, a significant increase in the supply of leasing units, and a guaranteed supply of affordable housing.

Policies will be introduced to encourage home leasing enterprises to expand.

About 50 million square meters of old residential buildings will be repaired and renovated.

Meanwhile, the tightening policies aimed at curbing property speculation will remain in place.

In the first half of this year, sales of new and pre-occupied homes more than halved in the city from a year earlier, a result of cooling measures that included home purchase restrictions and higher down payments and interest rates.

(Source: shanghaidaily.com)