Housing minister shares thoughts on real estate recovery

China is fully confident in the recovery of the real estate sector, Ni Hong, minister of housing and urban-rural development, said on the sidelines of the two sessions on Tuesday.

"In terms of market supply and demand, the fact China has achieved a major and decisive victory in COVID-19 prevention and control is having a positive effect on the real estate sector," he said.

He noted since the beginning of this year, sales of commercial housing ended 13 months of negative growth. The prices of both first- and second-hand housing have been steady, and the delivery of housing projects has also advanced.

"Reasonable housing financing has been improved, raising the confidence of the main body of the market," he said, adding policies to support first and second home purchases have been implemented and taken effect, and measures to prevent speculative purchases of housing are in place.

Ni said the recovery of the real estate market is occurring on the basis of the principle that housing is for living in, not for speculation; and the fact the measures are intended to support homebuyers' inelastic demand for housing, back rising demand for upgraded housing, prevent market fluctuations and promote high-quality development of the industry.

"To avoid financial and local debt risks, we will treat high-quality real estate enterprises equally, support high-quality State-owned and private real estate enterprises, help them improve their balance sheets and meet their reasonable financing needs; We will also focus on real estate enterprises that have problems, help them save themselves, and punish them strictly according to laws and regulations," Ni added.