GRA Market Weekly (2026-02-28)

Macro Policy

Property policy through the lens of provincial two sessions: 31 provinces and municipalities set out 2026 plans, 16 explicitly citing city-specific policy

By February, two sessions had concluded in all 31 provinces and municipalities nationwide, with each setting out property-sector plans among its key tasks. Most explicitly cited "stabilising the property market", with the overall language following the tone of the Central Economic Work Conference at the end of 2025 and framing 2026 property work primarily around urban renewal, the delivery of "good homes" and the activation of existing stock.

Many provinces and municipalities adhered to the principle of city-specific policy, with 16 explicitly emphasising it in their government work reports and indicating more clearly, in light of local conditions, where subsequent policy adjustments will be focused:

Jiangsu, Anhui, Fujian and others confirmed "deepening reform of the housing provident fund system"
Jiangsu, Liaoning and Sichuan confirmed the roll-out of "housing voucher resettlement"
Jiangsu, Shandong and Sichuan pointed to advancing housing "trade-in" schemes
Jilin pointed to "strengthening supervision of commercial housing pre-sale proceeds, consolidating the gains from expanding and improving the 'whitelist' project mechanism, and making good use of policy tools such as home purchase loan interest subsidies"
Guizhou, Qinghai and Yunnan, drawing on rich local cultural and tourism resources, pointed to developing "tourism-residence property" and "summer retreat and wellness homes", with Yunnan also targeting "a higher share of purchases by buyers from outside the province"
Shanxi, Chongqing and Yunnan addressed completed-home sales, proposing to establish or advance a completed-home sales system in a prudent and orderly manner

Targeted Policies

On 25 February, five departments - the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Municipal Housing Administration, the Municipal Finance Bureau, the Municipal Tax Service and the Municipal Provident Fund Management Centre - jointly issued the "Notice on Further Optimising and Adjusting the Municipality's Property Policies", effective from 26 February 2026.

Further easing of home purchase restrictions:

Shorter social insurance or income tax contribution periods for non-Shanghai residents buying inside the Outer Ring Road. For non-Shanghai-registered households or adult single buyers purchasing inside the Outer Ring Road, the required social insurance or individual income tax contribution period is adjusted to one year or more of continuous contributions immediately prior to purchase
Eligible non-Shanghai residents may buy one additional home inside the Outer Ring Road. Non-Shanghai-registered households or adult single buyers with three years or more of social insurance or individual income tax contributions in Shanghai may, on top of existing purchase restrictions, buy one additional home inside the Outer Ring Road
Eligible holders of the Shanghai Residence Permit may buy in Shanghai. Non-Shanghai-registered households or adult single buyers holding the Shanghai Residence Permit for five years or more may buy one home in Shanghai without providing proof of social insurance or income tax contributions

Under these provisions, non-Shanghai-registered households or adult single buyers with one year or more of continuous social insurance or individual income tax contributions in Shanghai immediately prior to purchase face no limit on the number of homes outside the Outer Ring Road and a cap of one home inside it; those with three years or more of continuous contributions may hold up to two homes inside the Outer Ring Road. Those holding the Shanghai Residence Permit for five years or more are limited to one home citywide.

Optimised housing provident fund loan policy:

Moderately higher maximum provident fund loan amounts. The maximum provident fund loan for a contributing household buying a first home rises from RMB 1.6 m to RMB 2.4 m; combined with the uplift for multi-child households and green building purchases (up to 35%), the maximum household provident fund loan in Shanghai can reach RMB 3.24 m. Maximum loan amounts for second-home purchases are raised correspondingly
Refined counting of loan history. Contributing households in Shanghai that have previously used a provident fund loan, own no home or only one home in Shanghai, and have already repaid their provident fund loan in full may apply for a provident fund loan when buying again in Shanghai
Wider purchase support for multi-child households. The scope of provident fund loan support extends from first-home to second-home purchases: for multi-child households buying a second home, the maximum loan amount is 20% above Shanghai's standard maximum

Refined individual property tax policy:

To support upgrade and trade-up demand, the Notice provides that from 1 January 2026, where a child in a Shanghai-registered household has reached adulthood and the home purchased is the sole home of that adult child's household, individual property tax is provisionally exempt. That is, where a buyer already co-owned a home with parents or grandparents while a minor (or before Shanghai's individual property tax pilot began), and after buying or trading up in Shanghai that home remains the sole home of the adult child's household (excluding the co-owned home above), individual property tax is provisionally exempt.

Where a buyer's household housing circumstances change and meet the above conditions, they may re-file and re-apply for individual property tax assessment with the tax authority where the taxable home is located, with tax adjusted from the month following reassessment and any overpaid tax for periods after 1 January 2026 refunded.

Market Watch

Guangzhou: record start to the land auction year as Yuexiu takes the Zhujiang New Town Racecourse plot for RMB 23.6 bn, setting a new unit-price record

On 25 February, the closely watched Racecourse plot in Zhujiang New Town, Guangzhou, was offered for sale. Designated as mixed-use land (including residential), it has a total site area of c. 194,500 sqm and total GFA of 567,000 sqm, with a starting price of RMB 18.644 bn and a starting blended accommodation value of RMB 32,883/sqm.

The plot is mixed-use land (comprising residential, retail, food and beverage, business and financial, and hotel uses) and is the most central, largest and most functionally complete plot offered in Guangzhou in the past decade, drawing intense attention and bidding interest from eight leading developers including Yuexiu, Poly Developments, China Resources and China Merchants. After nearly nine hours and 243 bidding rounds (including bids during the listing stage), Yuexiu won the plot for RMB 23.6 bn, at a blended accommodation value of RMB 41,632/sqm and a premium of 26.6% (saleable accommodation value of RMB 91,268/sqm for residential plus commercial, and RMB 105,970/sqm for residential alone), setting a new unit-price land record for Guangzhou. The total consideration ranks second among Guangzhou residential-use land deals by value, behind only the Asian Games City plot sold for RMB 25.5 bn in December 2009, and is the highest land auction total in Guangzhou since 2010.

The plot requires the buyer not only to self-hold a substantial amount of retail and business space but also to bring in a high-end fashion department store operator delivering cumulative sales contributions of no less than RMB 30 bn within six years - Hualian SKP is a possible candidate as the retail operator. It must also deliver no less than 45,000 sqm of internationally branded five-star hotel and same-brand serviced apartments, setting a very high bar for the developer's financial strength and integrated operating capability.

REITs Watch

Harvest Beijing Capital Development commercial real estate REIT formally filed, backed by three Beijing retail assets

On 26 February, Beijing Capital Development, together with Harvest Fund Management, formally filed a commercial real estate REIT backed by three Beijing retail assets: Huaqiaocun Retail Street, Puti Retail Street and Songjiazhuang Fumao. Beijing Capital Development intends to act as sponsor, contributing the three projects as pool assets and filing with the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the Shanghai Stock Exchange in line with commercial real estate REIT policy requirements; following approval, the public fund manager will conduct the offering together with the financial adviser. Beijing Capital Development or its affiliates will participate in the strategic placement in accordance with laws, regulations and regulatory requirements, subscribing for no less than 20% of the units offered.

The company will transfer to the special plan (or to an SPV) 100% of the equity in Beijing Shoukai Commercial Management Co., Ltd., which holds the Huaqiaocun Retail Street and Songjiazhuang Fumao projects, and 100% of the equity in Beijing Shoukai Yunjin Puti Commercial Management Co., Ltd., which holds the Puti Retail Street project, with the fund acquiring ownership of the REIT's underlying assets. Beijing Kaixin Life Commercial Management Co., Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Beijing Capital Development, will be appointed by the fund as operator of the commercial properties, responsible for managing each project.

Proceeds recovered from the REIT issuance, after deducting amounts used to repay external debt, fund the strategic placement by the company and its affiliates and pay related taxes, are intended for uses permitted by regulation - acquisitions of existing assets related to the core business, new investment, debt repayment and working capital - and will not be used to purchase residential development land.

Corporate Watch

Real estate fund between multiple insurers and Gaohe Capital formally established at RMB 8.601 bn

On 6 February, Tianjin Lanqin Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership), sized at RMB 8.601 bn, was registered in Tianjin. Its managing partner is Gaohe Mingde (Beijing) Enterprise Management Services Co., Ltd., an entity within the Gaohe Capital group, and its investors include seven insurance institutions such as Taikang Life, Great Wall Life and AIA Life.

The fund corresponds to the partnership announced in December last year between Ingka Centres (formerly IKEA Shopping Centres) and Gaohe Capital, and will invest in Livat schemes in Wuxi, Beijing and Wuhan that have been operating for more than 10 years. Ingka Centres will retain exclusive operating and management rights over the assets.

Ingka Centres sits within Ingka Group (which also includes IKEA Retail and Ingka Investments) and is a global commercial real estate developer, operator and manager. It currently operates 38 meeting places across 15 markets worldwide. In China, its shopping centre brand is "Livat".

Ingka Centres currently operates 10 Livat shopping centres in China - in Wuxi, Beijing, Wuhan, Fuzhou, Changsha, Nanning, Kunming, Hefei, Xi'an and Shanghai - representing total investment of c. RMB 27.5 bn and c. 943,000 sqm of total lettable area. Beyond shopping centres, its Livat office brand self-operates four office projects in Beijing, Qingdao and Shanghai. The Livat shopping centres in Beijing, Wuxi and Wuhan were Ingka Group's first large mixed-use complexes to open in mainland China, completed in 2014-2015 and now operating for more than 10 years. All three feature the "IKEA blue box plus shopping centre" format.

China Life acquires Jinmao's Tangshan senior care project "Sumao Yiyuan" in Nanjing

China Life has formally taken over "Sumao Yiyuan", the core integrated medical and senior care complex owned by China Jinmao in the Tangshan Hot Spring Wellness Town in Nanjing. The parties signed the transfer contract in 2025 and completed all procedures and title transfer before the Spring Festival.

Sumao Yiyuan sits at the heart of the Tangshan Hot Spring Wellness Town in Nanjing, with access to Tangshan's natural hot spring resources, a strong location and mature surrounding amenities. The project has total GFA of c. 26,000 sqm, comprising 152 independent-living apartments and 95 assisted-care apartments, together with 4,500 sqm of public service space. It can serve older residents across the spectrum from fully independent to partially and fully dependent, providing one-stop, full-cycle medical care, wellness, daily assistance, health management and cultural and recreational services, and is positioned squarely at the high-end senior care market.