The housing and urban-rural construction bureau in Heze, Shandong province, recently announced that it would relax its controls on housing sales. It is the first city to decide to end its restrictions on housing sales during the real estate control period this round.

According to the announcement, the Heze government decided to cancel the former control policy that local residents could only resell their property after two years while nonresidents could resell their house purchased in Heze only after three years. The restriction on resales, which was aimed at curbing soaring housing price and speculation, took effect in November, 2017.

The government said that the cancellation of former housing sales restrictions is for the stable and healthy development of the local real estate sector. In addition, the Heze authorities claim this move is to meet the demand of some local residents, who receive monetary compensation to vacate their shantytown housing but are unable to purchase a new home due to the former housing resale restrictions.

As a third-or even fourth-tier city, Heze faces comparatively low pressure of housing speculation during the real estate market downturn nowadays. Experts said that the principle of "housing is for living in rather than speculation "is still the main principle of the country's real estate control, but local governments could adjust the specific control policies according to their actual situations.