Real estate is closely related to the vital interests of the people and the overall economic and social development. Since the fourth quarter of last year, intensive policies have been implemented to promote the stabilization of the real estate market. By establishing a coordination mechanism for urban real estate financing, increasing credit investment, and reducing housing purchase costs, clear signals of "stabilizing the market, preventing risks, and establishing mechanisms" have been released. Recently, the reporter learned in an interview that the bottoming out effect of financial policies on the real estate market is undergoing transmission from the policy side to the market side. From "bottoming out" to "lifting up", the financial support for the real estate market continues to increase. Under the resonance of financial policies and market confidence, the real estate market in many places is surging with waves of warmth. Industry insiders say that the comprehensive opening of the policy toolbox and the continuous rise in market temperature mark a critical window for the stable and healthy development of the real estate market. In the future, policies are expected to continue to exert force, further boosting market expectations. The policy "toolbox" has been fully opened to enhance financial support. Following the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee on July 28, 2022, which clearly proposed the "Baojiao Building" policy, relevant financial support policies have been continuously strengthened: special loans and supporting financing for "Baojiao Building", "Baojiao Building" loan support plan and other policy financial instruments have accelerated their implementation; The intensive introduction of support policies for real estate financing, such as credit, bonds, and equity financing (known as the "three arrows" in the industry), has taken policy support to a higher level since 2024. From "guaranteed delivery of buildings" to "guaranteed delivery of buildings", supporting policies have been continuously introduced and further effective. This year's Government Work Report explicitly proposes to "continue to vigorously promote the stabilization of the real estate market" and makes a series of arrangements for the healthy development of the real estate market. Subsequently, financial regulatory authorities also deployed around the real estate sector. For example, on March 13th, the Party Committee of the State Administration of Financial Supervision and Administration held an expanded meeting. The meeting emphasized the need to continuously promote the expansion and efficiency improvement of the urban real estate financing coordination mechanism, and resolutely do a good job in ensuring the delivery of houses. Accelerate the formulation and implementation of financing systems that are compatible with the new model of real estate development. The State Council executive meeting held on April 18th studied several measures to stabilize employment, stabilize the economy, and promote high-quality development, among which it was explicitly mentioned that "we must continue to stabilize the stock market and promote the stable and healthy development of the real estate market". This further sends out a policy area pole signal. Real estate is an important component of residents' assets, and the introduction of a series of incremental policies is expected to promote the stabilization of the real estate market. It can not only stabilize the real estate market, but also release wealth effects and better boost social consumption. ”Mingming, Chief Economist of CITIC Securities, told Securities Daily reporters that a series of measures taken by financial regulatory authorities in recent times will also help implement various policies to stabilize the real estate market, build a new model for real estate development, and promote high-quality development of the real estate market. Chen Wenjing, Director of Policy Research at Zhongzhi Research Institute, told reporters that the 2024 urban real estate financing coordination mechanism has played a key role in ensuring the delivery of housing, and will continue to play a positive role this year. Continuing to do a good job in ensuring the delivery of houses will help accelerate the repair process on the supply side; On the demand side, it also has a positive impact on restoring residents' confidence in buying houses and promoting market stabilization. The financial support for real estate is expected to continue to strengthen in 2025, and relevant real estate policies are also expected to pay more attention to the substantive implementation of various measures. The credit decisions in the risk clearance of commercial banks' "offensive defensive balance" continue to promote the stable and healthy development of the real estate market, requiring the gathering of various forces, among which financial support plays a crucial role. The coordination mechanism for urban real estate financing is an important measure and powerful guarantee for achieving a virtuous cycle between finance and real estate, and improving market expectations. At present, many "whitelist" projects are accelerating their implementation, and commercial banks are continuing to expand the scope and increase efficiency of the "whitelist", accelerating the approval of project investment, and meeting the reasonable funding needs of real estate projects. Data shows that as of mid February this year, China Construction Bank has approved nearly 1600 projects on the coordination mechanism whitelist, with an approved amount exceeding 760 billion yuan and a cumulative investment of over 510 billion yuan. Among them, there are more than 700 "whitelist" projects for review, with an approval amount exceeding 170 billion yuan and an investment amount exceeding 110 billion yuan; There are over 850 projects on the "whitelist" for record keeping, with approved amounts exceeding 580 billion yuan and investment amounts exceeding 400 billion yuan. In terms of financial support for real estate, large state-owned commercial banks play an important leading role. According to the data disclosed in the annual reports of six state-owned banks, as of the end of 2024, the total balance of real estate loans of the six banks was about 5.42 trillion yuan, of which five banks had increased compared to the end of 2023. From the perspective of non-performing loan ratios in the real estate industry, in 2024, the non-performing loan ratios of six banks in the real estate industry have all decreased compared to the end of 2023. Behind the increase in the volume and quality of real estate development loans is the combination of promoting the stable and healthy development of the real estate market and resolving real estate risks by state-owned banks, ensuring the quality of asset selection. For example, Agricultural Bank of China has strengthened the management of key links in its real estate business and solidly promoted risk control for large real estate enterprises through the "one household, one policy" approach. As of the end of 2024, the bank's non-performing loan balance in the real estate industry has decreased by 300 million yuan compared to the beginning of the year, and the non-performing loan ratio has decreased by 0.02 percentage points. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has implemented comprehensive measures from four aspects of "strengthening prevention and improving governance". While resolutely implementing the coordination mechanism for urban real estate financing, ICBC has also strictly controlled the selection of new assets, focused on building a diversified and balanced real estate investment and financing structure, and increased efforts to dispose of risky real estate enterprises and projects. Ji Zhihong, Vice President of China Construction Bank, previously stated that it will continue to optimize digital risk control tools such as mortgage scoring cards, risk warning models, and real estate big data valuation models, comprehensively improve the level of refined risk control, and also strengthen the disposal of non-performing assets through various means to maintain the overall asset quality at a stable level. On March 26th, Wu Jian, Vice President of Bank of China, stated at the bank's 2024 annual performance conference that the real estate market is still in a period of adjustment, but with the implementation and transformation of the national package of incremental policies, the real estate market is expected to gradually stop falling and stabilize. It is expected that the pressure on the quality of Bank of China's development loan assets will continue the marginal improvement trend in 2024. With the support of a series of policies such as lowering mortgage interest rates and down payment ratios, reducing transaction taxes and fees, and launching a coordinated mechanism for urban real estate financing, the real estate market has undergone some positive changes, and the trend of "stopping the decline and stabilizing" in the real estate market has become apparent at the beginning of this year. According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, in the first quarter of this year, the sales area of newly-built commercial housing in China was 218.69 million square meters, a year-on-year decrease of 3.0%, which was 2.1 percentage points narrower than the first two months of this year; The sales revenue of newly-built commercial housing reached 2079.8 billion yuan, a decrease of 2.1%, which narrowed by 0.5 percentage points compared to the first two months of this year. The reporter recently visited some new real estate projects in Beijing and found that the market is currently showing a certain trend of recovery, and even some newly opened projects have encountered situations where customers cannot be received for sales. A sales manager who has been working in the real estate industry for more than 10 years told reporters: "Previously, there were many threshold restrictions, and housing prices and loan interest rates were relatively high, which to some extent suppressed the demand for purchasing. Now, under a series of policies, we can clearly feel that since September 2024, the demand for improved housing has continued to grow, and consumers have higher requirements for living environment. On the basis of 'having a house to live in', they also pursue 'living in a good house'." Some real estate agents also introduced that currently, the transaction volume of second-hand houses in Beijing is active, and consumers' willingness to buy houses is gradually increasing. In a buying group of nearly 200 people where the reporter is located, there are many inquiries about buying a house every day, and even some consumers actively request that the agent hold a live broadcast to explain the buying process. The current mortgage interest rates, down payment ratios, and other indicators continue to decline, which is beneficial for our first-time homebuyers. Moreover, from the overall trend of housing prices, the prices in the areas I am concerned about have rebounded to around 2016 and 2017 levels. ”Mr. Chen, who is planning to buy a house in Beijing, told reporters that he noticed during the offline viewing process that high-quality housing is very "in high demand" and the transaction speed is fast, and there may even be situations where the highest bidder wins. From the perspective of commercial banks, according to a representative from a large commercial bank, since the fourth quarter of 2024, the daily average acceptance rate of the bank's personal housing loan business has gradually increased, and the good momentum has continued until now. At the same time, after the adjustment of existing mortgage interest rates, the interest rate spread between new and old mortgages has significantly narrowed, and the interest burden on borrowers has been reduced. The situation of early repayment has also decreased. Regarding the approval process of bank loans, a salesperson from a new real estate project in Beijing stated that the bank loan approval process in cooperation with the real estate developer is very efficient. As long as the buyer's credit is not a problem, the bank usually disburses the loan within 1-2 days. In the second quarter, policies are expected to continue to strengthen and further boost market expectations. Although the financial industry strongly supports the development of the real estate market, overall, the real estate market is still in the adjustment stage, and there is still some differentiation between different cities and internal sectors of cities. In the view of Lu Ting, Chief Economist of Nomura Securities China, the real estate market has not yet achieved nationwide recovery, and further efforts are needed to support the development of the real estate market. The real estate market is one of the key drivers of China's stable economic growth this year. In terms of stabilizing the real estate market, policy efforts can focus on promoting market clearance and ensuring the delivery of buildings, further increasing efforts to ensure the delivery of buildings. ”Lu Ting said. Mingming suggests that real estate companies should strengthen asset restructuring and credit repair. At the same time, distressed real estate companies need to accelerate overseas debt restructuring and revitalize existing assets such as commercial real estate and parking lots through REITs and equity cooperation. Chen Wenjing analyzed that in the short term, as the top priority of domestic demand, real estate is expected to continue to be supported by various policies. The implementation of policies in the second quarter is expected to accelerate, and if the "interest rate cut" can be implemented, it will further boost market expectations and help the real estate market recover. Further support from financial policies for real estate companies is still necessary at critical moments. When it comes to how finance can continue to play a good role as a "support" to help build a new model for real estate development, Mingming stated that in the current situation where mortgage loan interest rates have continued to decline, the reduction of housing provident fund loan interest rates can further open up space for the reduction of housing credit costs, release residents' housing demand, promote real estate enterprises to sell and collect payments, and thus improve their cash flow and operating conditions. Several commercial banks have stated that they will seize the opportunity of positive changes in the real estate market this year and actively promote the stabilization of the real estate market with greater efforts. For example, China Construction Bank will seize the opportunity of supporting policies and increasing activity in the real estate market, such as reducing down payments and taxes, fully leveraging the bank's professional advantages in mortgage loans, and consolidating the traditional advantages of personal housing loans; Effectively implement a package of incremental policies and promote the effective implementation of the coordination mechanism for urban real estate financing. Agricultural Bank of China will connect with high-quality real estate companies, second-hand housing intermediaries, housing provident fund centers and other cooperative channels and customers, continuously optimize product policies, financial service plans and business processes, increase investment in mortgage loans for first-hand and second-hand housing in cities and counties, effectively unleash the potential for residents' basic needs and improved housing demand, and help the real estate market develop steadily and healthily. (New Society)