Rules relaxed

According to statistics from Centaline Property, more second-tier cities have eased curbs on the housing market, including Zhengzhou, capital of Central China's Henan province, Fuzhou in East China's Fujian province, Harbin in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, and Lanzhou in Northwest China's Gansu province.

In April, a handful of "hot spot" cities announced measures to encourage home buying activities. Suzhou, in East China's Jiangsu province, eased its restrictions on both sales and purchases on April 11. One day later, purchasing restrictions were eased in the Lishui and Liuhe districts of Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, as nonlocals were allowed to buy their first homes without proof of social security status.

On April 13, Huaibei, in Anhui province, announced that first-time home buyers or families can receive a maximum subsidy of 60,000 yuan ($9,350) during the city's Spring Home Exhibition, which concludes on May 4, according to guandian, an online industry observer.

Policies aimed at encouraging rigid and rational demand reached their peak on April 12 as Shanghai's Lingang Special Area of China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone shortened its residential requirement for nonlocal talent to buy homes from at least one year to a minimum of three months.

In addition to Lingang, some other noncentral areas of Shanghai and other cities are expected to roll out similar measures as long as their home market faces challenges, said Yan Yuejin, director of the E-house China Research and Development Institution in Shanghai.

The 2022 Government Work Report said that along with measures introduced in line with local conditions, the central government has pledged to meet people's needs by better satisfying their rational living demands, stabilizing land prices, home prices and market expectations, applying policies by taking the special conditions of each city into consideration, and thereby promote the healthy development of the property market and build a virtuous circle.