The Spring Festival holiday of the Year of the Horse has just ended, and there is a heavy news coming from the real estate market. The Shanghai Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban Rural Development, the Municipal Housing Management Bureau, the Municipal Finance Bureau, the Municipal Taxation Bureau, and the Municipal Housing Provident Fund Management Center jointly issued a notice yesterday (25th) on further optimizing and adjusting the city's real estate policies. Through seven specific measures, they will further meet the rigid and improved housing needs of residents and promote the stable and healthy development of the real estate market. This notice is also known as the "Shanghai Seven Measures". Seven measures to accurately solve the practical problems of potential homebuyers. Before the non Shanghai registered residence buyers want to buy a house in Shanghai, how many years of social security and individual income tax have been paid is the first problem to be clear. The first article of the "Seven Articles of Shanghai" is that when a non registered residence or adult single person purchases a house in the Outer Ring Road, the number of years of social insurance or individual income tax required to pay for the purchase of the house is adjusted from three years or more to one year or more. In addition, new policies such as allowing holders of a Shanghai Residence Permit for at least 5 years to purchase one property throughout the city, and allowing for a maximum housing provident fund family loan of 3.24 million yuan have also attracted attention. These new policies have been officially implemented since today. The Central Economic Work Conference held at the end of last year proposed that this year, we will "clean up unreasonable restrictions in the consumption sector" and "focus on stabilizing the real estate market, implementing policies to control incremental growth, reduce inventory, and optimize supply according to urban conditions". The Spring Festival holiday of the Year of the Horse has just ended, coinciding with the traditional real estate market's "golden three and silver four" and the eve of the small spring. Shanghai has fired the "first shot" of the new real estate policy in the Year of the Horse, and what signals have been released? How will the heavy new policy affect the decisions of homebuyers? As soon as the policy was released, there were positive changes in the Shanghai real estate market. Zhang Tingfeng, a real estate broker in Shanghai, said that the proportion of buyers with registered residence outside the city accounted for about 30% of the sector he was responsible for, which was an improvement sector with a high cost performance ratio in the outer ring of Shanghai. As soon as the policy was announced, many homebuyers who had been paying attention to the Shanghai real estate market immediately called. Specifically, the new policy includes seven specific measures in three aspects, such as further reducing the housing purchase restriction policy, optimizing the housing provident fund loan policy, and improving the personal housing property tax policy. In terms of purchase restriction policy, the number of years of social insurance or individual income tax required by non registered residence residents to purchase houses in the Outer Ring Road will be shortened. Eligible non registered residence residents can purchase an additional house in the Outer Ring Road, and eligible groups with Shanghai residence permits can purchase houses in Shanghai. Li Yujia, the chief researcher of the Guangdong Housing Policy Research Center, said that this reflected the policy orientation of focusing on activating the purchase of houses by people with non registered residence in Shanghai. Li Yujia, Chief Researcher of Guangdong Housing Policy Research Center: The policy will lower the social security requirement for purchasing housing inside the Shanghai Outer Ring Road to one year, so that one can purchase their first home inside the outer ring road, while there is no limit to the number of homes outside the outer ring road; For those who have paid social security for 3 years, they can purchase an additional housing unit within the outer ring, which means a total of two units can be purchased; With a residence permit of 5 years or more, you can buy a house without social security. These policies have a strong incentive for non Shanghai registered residence people to buy houses. People who are not registered in registered residence have a high willingness to buy houses, especially those who live in a long-term and stable employment life; Activating non Shanghai registered residence people to buy houses will help digest the inventory of second-hand houses, stabilize the price of second-hand houses, and promote the market circulation of selling old houses to buy new ones, selling small ones to buy large ones. In terms of housing provident fund loans, the new policy has also undergone significant changes. Chen Wenjing, Director of Policy Research at the Zhongzhi Research Institute, observed that the new policy significantly increases the housing provident fund loan limit, with the maximum limit for first-time homebuyers reaching 3.24 million yuan. In addition, measures such as optimizing the recognition of housing provident fund units and expanding the scope of support for families with multiple children to purchase homes will further meet the rigid and improved housing needs of residents. Chen Wenjing, Director of Policy Research at Zhongzhi Research Institute: The increase in housing provident fund loan amount has been significant. The maximum amount of housing provident fund loan for first-time homebuyers has increased from 1.6 million yuan to 2.4 million yuan, an increase of 800000 yuan. If combined with the policy of increasing the maximum loan amount for families with multiple children and purchasing green buildings, the maximum amount for first-time homebuyers can reach 3.24 million yuan. For families purchasing a second home, the housing provident fund loan amount has been increased to 2 million yuan. For families with multiple children purchasing a second home, the maximum housing provident fund loan amount can be increased by 20%. This will provide better support for homebuyers to purchase properties, reduce property costs, and increase their willingness and ability to consume housing. The new policy also proposes to support the residents' replacement and improvement needs, and stipulates that from January 1, 2026, the individual housing property tax will be temporarily exempted for the children of registered residence households in Shanghai who purchase the house as the only house of the adult children's family after they become adults. For homebuyers who have jointly owned a house with their parents or grandparents when they were underage (or before the pilot of personal housing property tax in Shanghai), if the house is still the only house for adult children's families after purchasing or replacing it in Shanghai (except for the above-mentioned jointly owned houses), personal housing property tax will be temporarily exempted. Chen Wenjing stated that this reflects a more refined adjustment of the property tax policy, which precisely adapts to support the demand for home purchases. Chen Wenjing, Director of Policy Research of the Middle finger Research Institute: In September 2025, Shanghai optimized the real estate tax policy for non Shanghai registered families. After the combined calculation of the total housing area of families, the second and more houses purchased by non registered residence registered families will be deducted from the tax-free area of 60 square meters per capita. This policy further improves the real estate tax policy for the purchase of houses by children of Shanghai registered families. In early February, Shanghai piloted the purchase of second-hand housing for affordable rental housing in Jing'an District, Pudong New Area, and Xuhui District, which had a positive impact on stabilizing market expectations. Coupled with the favorable policies, the Shanghai real estate market is expected to usher in a warmer "little spring" market, thereby leveraging the driving effect of big cities and promoting overall market expectations improvement. At the end of December 2025, Beijing will launch a new round of real estate support policies. After the new policy, some second-hand housing owners have shown positive changes in their mentality, with a decline in the number of second-hand housing listings and an increase in the activity of the real estate market. After two months, Shanghai has followed up on optimizing its real estate policies, further lowering the threshold for home purchases, and optimizing its housing provident fund and property tax policies. Yan Yuejin, Vice President of Shanghai E-house Real Estate Research Institute, stated that the seven policies released this time are focused on multiple housing needs, involving both non Shanghai and Shanghai households, as well as groups holding Shanghai residence permits and families with multiple children. They have the characteristics of wide coverage and precise policy implementation. Yan Yuejin, Vice President of Shanghai E-house Real Estate Research Institute: Overall, it reflects further support for various housing needs, especially including demand dimensions such as work life balance, livable housing, and improvement of basic needs. For the upcoming "Little Spring" key time point, combined with the current market adjustment being basically in place, the expectation of stable housing prices gradually increasing, and the combination of various favorable policies, it will be able to better promote the further release of various types of housing demand, promote the circular and healthy development between various markets, especially drive the smooth replacement chain. Li Yujia believes that Shanghai has fired the "first shot" of the new real estate policy in the Year of the Horse at the beginning of the Chinese New Year. The signal significance in reducing costs, lowering thresholds, and raising expectations is very obvious, and the policy targeting is also strong. It will have a significant impact on the "little spring" of the real estate market in March. Li Yujia, chief researcher of Guangdong Housing Policy Research Center: This new policy not only activates the housing demand of non registered residence residents, but also vigorously optimizes the housing provident fund policy, supports the children of registered residence residents to buy houses, and explores the potential of housing purchase. It is expected that under the triple advantages of policy support, developer promotion, and seasonal peak season, a small peak in the property market will be formed in March, so that more new citizens and non registered residence people can achieve the demand for just needed houses under the policy encouragement and expected boost, and drive the improvement demand of registered residence and people with houses in Shanghai, and promote the steady and healthy development of the real estate market. (New Society)