In order to fully leverage the key role of housing provident fund in housing security, in the first half of this year, many regions have adjusted and optimized the policies for the use of housing provident fund. Through various convenient measures such as increasing the loan amount of housing provident fund, reducing the down payment ratio of second home loans, and expanding the scope of use, the coverage of housing provident fund use has been further expanded, effectively reducing the cost of housing for residents. Relaxing usage restrictions and focusing on the pain points, difficulties, and bottlenecks of handling public affairs, various regions have proposed more measures to benefit the people, making the applicability of the housing provident fund more extensive and the guarantee stronger. In March of this year, the Shenzhen Housing Provident Fund Management Committee issued the "Supplementary Provisions on the Management Regulations of Shenzhen Housing Provident Fund Loans" and the "Notice on Relevant Matters of Shenzhen Housing Provident Fund Interest Subsidies", introducing measures such as increasing loan amounts and lowering down payment ratios. Huang Jiankun, Deputy Director of Shenzhen Housing Provident Fund Management Center, introduced that the new policy adjustment is centered on "higher quota, lower threshold, and better service", providing strong guarantees for residents to "live comfortably". For example, after the adjustment of the new policy, the maximum loanable limit of Shenzhen provident fund was increased to 2.31 million yuan, the loanable limit was increased from 14 times to 16 times of the account balance, and the minimum down payment ratio was uniformly adjusted to 20%. The restrictions on registered residence and first set of housing were cancelled for loans from other places, further expanding the universality and applicability of the provident fund security system. At the same time, focusing on the widely concerned issue of housing loan repayment pressure in current society, the new policy has also added a "debt repayment" service for couples. After the new policy was introduced, a total of 1.822 billion yuan in repayments have been processed, which has been well received by the general public. Since July, several cities in Jiangsu, including Nanjing, Huai'an, and Yancheng, have announced detailed rules for the new housing provident fund policies. Among them, increasing the quota and relaxing restrictions on housing provident fund loans have become common choices. Huai'an will increase the maximum loan amount for housing provident fund contributions from 700000 yuan for one party and 1 million yuan for both parties to 840000 yuan and 1.2 million yuan respectively. Yancheng unified the maximum limit of housing provident fund loans in various regions of the city. Families who meet the loan conditions have a maximum loan limit of 1.2 million yuan; The maximum loan amount for individuals who meet the loan conditions is 800000 yuan. At the same time, Yangzhou, Huai'an, Yancheng and other places have made it clear that if the depositor purchases self occupied housing, the scope of the purchaser's withdrawal can be expanded to include the purchaser themselves, their spouse, parents, and children. Yangzhou will reduce the minimum down payment ratio for purchasing a second self occupied housing using housing provident fund loans to 20%; Changzhou will lower the down payment ratio of housing provident fund loans for families who enjoy home purchase subsidies from a minimum of 20% to 15%. In order to implement the policy of supporting childbirth and further optimize the criteria for determining the number of housing units for families with multiple children, Qingdao has relaxed the criteria for determining the number of housing units. When families with multiple children purchase their second home in the purchased housing area (city), they can enjoy preferential policies such as interest rates for their first home, reducing the pressure of repayment. For households without housing within the purchased housing area (city), when applying for a housing provident fund loan for a new purchase, it can be recognized as the first home. Wang Qinglun, Director of the Policy Research Department of Qingdao Housing Provident Fund Management Center, believes that this move precisely supports the demand for improved housing. "Nowadays, many families need to change houses to improve their living conditions due to the growth of their children and the support of the elderly. Relaxing the limit on the number of housing units recognized for families with multiple children can effectively reduce the cost of purchasing a house. Expanding coverage in various regions by expanding extraction scenarios and simplifying processes, making the housing provident fund better adapt to the diverse funding needs of depositors, and helping to promote the recovery of housing consumption. On June 10th, the Qingdao Housing Provident Fund Management Center released a new policy on the withdrawal of housing provident fund, which aims to optimize and improve the policy by expanding the scope, increasing the situation, and simplifying the process, in order to better meet the diversified funding needs of depositors. One of the highlights of this policy optimization is to expand the scope of down payment extraction to the second-hand housing market. According to the policy, in Qingdao, depositors and their spouses can not only withdraw their housing provident fund to pay the down payment when purchasing newly-built commercial housing or affordable housing, but also apply to purchasing second-hand housing. For affordable housing or first or second self occupied homes, the parents and children of the homebuyer can also withdraw their housing provident fund to pay the down payment. The new policy in Qingdao breaks the traditional model of housing provident fund being more closely related to new houses. ”Yan Yuejin, Vice President of Shanghai E-house Real Estate Research Institute, said that this measure solves the problem of down payment for buyers in second-hand housing transactions and reduces the financial pressure for home buying families. At the same time, it also helps to maintain the vitality of the second-hand housing market and avoid market cooling. Qingdao has also added the extraction of "updated elevators" this time. For residential buildings that require renovation, the property owner and spouse, parents, children, and spouses of both parties can withdraw their housing provident fund within their actual investment scope to install or update elevators and improve the living environment. On the basis of relaxing loan restrictions, many areas in Jiangsu have further expanded their coverage. On June 30th, the official website of Nanjing Housing Provident Fund Management Center released a notice on optimizing housing provident fund related policies, expanding the scope of provident fund loans from the previous Nanjing metropolitan area to the entire province of Jiangsu, and extending existing housing loans from the previous maximum of 20 years to 30 years. When buying a house in Nanjing, provident fund loans from other places can be "expanded" to the entire province of Jiangsu. Shenzhen also actively collaborates with surrounding cities to carry out regional cooperation and improve the convenience of using housing provident funds in different regions. As of now, Shenzhen has established a collaborative development mechanism with 10 cities in Guangdong Province, including Zhuhai, Shantou, Jiangmen, Chaozhou, and Jieyang, to help solve the problem of "two ends running" for employees due to cross city work and life mobility, reduce the travel and economic costs of handling business in different cities, truly achieve "money follows people, services share", and play a positive role in the flow of regional talent resources. Associate Professor Sun Guanglin from the School of Finance at Nanjing University of Finance and Economics stated that expanding the use scenarios of housing provident fund to meet the diverse needs of residents, improving the efficiency of housing provident fund use, demonstrating policy warmth, can promote a more perfect housing security system, and promote the stable and healthy development of the real estate market. While continuously optimizing and adjusting relevant policies to improve service efficiency, various regions have empowered technology and process reengineering to make provident fund services more efficient and provide a better experience. Since the beginning of this year, the Shenzhen Housing Provident Fund Center has actively explored the integration of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain into specific business scenarios. It is the first in the country to apply digital RMB and "smart contract" technology to the housing provident fund withdrawal business for flexible employment personnel, achieving the "first receipt, then verification" of provident fund withdrawal; The first practical government service model for the public in China, "Shenxiaoi," has launched intelligent services for housing provident fund, realizing a new model of "chatting and processing" high-frequency services such as other housing consumption extraction, retirement extraction, self-service agreement signing, deposit extraction information query, and loan information query. Data shows that as of the end of June this year, Shenzhen's housing provident fund has accumulated a total of 963.623 billion yuan in funds; Accumulated support for employees to withdraw 624.05 billion yuan, of which 10.0556 million depositors were supported to rent and withdraw 244.639 billion yuan; A total of 525900 personal housing loans have been issued, with a total amount of 365.492 billion yuan disbursed. Huang Jiankun said that the Shenzhen Provident Fund Center will continue to deepen the reform and innovation of the provident fund system, further expand the breadth and depth of the system to benefit the people, use a more intelligent system to make more data run away, take more warm measures to make people less worried, help tens of millions of workers build buildings, enjoy living in Shenzhen, and strive to write a "Chinese path to modernization answer sheet" for people's livelihood security. Qingdao focuses on the reform of "efficiently accomplishing one thing" and deeply promotes the "one thing" of housing provident fund, personal housing loan, and home purchase. Online access to the "Love Shandong" government service platform, providing convenient channels for the public to handle "mobile applications" and "online applications", and supporting one-stop online acceptance of newly built commercial housing and second-hand housing. 11 joint office zones have been established offline throughout the city, integrating cross departmental services such as housing provident fund, real estate, and taxation. Multiple services, including loan interviews, mortgage registration, and real estate transaction tax declaration, can be processed in one go, creating a convenient experience of "one-stop completion" and "one-time processing". This service has transformed the public's handling of affairs from 'running multiple times' to' only running once 'and' only entering one door '. The processing time for home purchase loans has been reduced from 20 working days to within 6 working days, and efficiency has been improved by 70%, "said Zhang Quanqing, Director of the Operations Management Department of Qingdao Housing Provident Fund Management Center. Qingdao has also innovatively created a "housing provident fund payment" platform, breaking through the traditional fund circulation model of first consumption and then withdrawal. The housing provident fund account has been upgraded to a housing consumption wallet, supporting depositors to transfer housing provident fund in real time for multi scenario housing consumption such as down payment, mortgage repayment, and rent payment. The direct rent payment function has covered 19 housing rental agencies and more than 7600 housing units in the city, providing convenient and efficient payment services for depositors. Each region needs to balance and optimize the relationship between provident fund services and risk prevention, and balance the relationship between national unity and regional differences. ”Sun Guanglin suggested that while releasing the vitality of housing provident fund funds, various regions should pay attention to clarifying the conditions, limitations, and scope of application of new scenarios for the use of housing provident fund, ensuring the safety and compliant use of funds, and avoiding the abuse of funds and deviation from the main channel of housing security. In the process of policy implementation, establish a unified national policy red line and clear prohibitive regulations to ensure the fairness and integrity of the system. At the provincial or key city level, it should be allowed to adjust the differences in scenarios and processes to avoid policy adaptation caused by a one size fits all approach. At the same time, establish a dynamic monitoring mechanism to achieve full process supervision of provident fund funds, ensuring that every use of funds is traceable. (New Society)