Refined regulation｜The central government named, "Severely crack down on speculation of housing in school districts" may become the focus of regulation in the property market

Since the beginning of this year, the general housing market boom in first- and second-tier cities, led by school district housing, has attracted attention. As a derivative of the real estate market, "school district housing" has become the target of "hype" by many real estate agents and speculators. Under the policy of refined regulation of the property market, "severely cracking down on speculation of housing in school districts" to reduce the market's false enthusiasm may become the focus of subsequent regulation.

According to incomplete statistics from The Paper, since this year Hefei, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Changchun, Xiamen and other places have introduced new policies to severely punish "speculation of school district housing". Not only that, "preventing speculation in housing prices in the name of school district housing" was also raised for the first time at the Politburo meeting.

The Politburo meeting first mentioned "preventing the speculation of housing prices in the name of school district housing"

On April 30 this year, the Political Bureau meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held, which emphasized that we must persist in The positioning of houses is for living in, not for speculation, increasing the supply of affordable rental housing and private housing, and preventing speculation in housing prices in the name of school district housing.

Among them, what has attracted much attention is "preventing the speculation of housing prices in the name of school district housing."

Zou Linhua, leader of the housing big data project team of the Institute of Financial Strategy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out that the rise in housing prices in hot cities in the past year has been driven by conceptual speculation such as "school district housing." In the current internal and external economic environment, housing price speculation led by the concept of "school district housing" carries greater economic risks. Basic education is related to fairness and long-term development of the country, and should not be the subject of speculation. The Politburo meeting proposed to prevent the speculation of housing prices in the name of school district housing, which is in line with the current shortcomings and has positive significance in curbing the current structural speculation of real estate.

Li Yujia, chief researcher of the Guangdong Provincial Housing Policy Research Center, also mentioned that the biggest difference between this round of housing price increases in school districts and the past is that there is frequent speculation rather than an increase in demand for degrees. The hype of school district housing not only worsens people's livelihood demands, but also violates the equalization of compulsory education. Combating the speculation of housing in school districts is the most in-depth implementation of the principle of "housing for living, not speculation". Because speculation of housing in school districts is an extreme form of real estate speculation, and it is also an extremely bad form of real estate speculation. It may not only lead to a new round of rising housing prices, but also intensify the strain on public resources.

“As for the phenomenon of speculation on housing prices in school districts, the rise to the central government’s status this time fully illustrates the seriousness of this problem. It also shows that in the subsequent solution to the housing price problem, the issue of housing in school districts will be focused on.” said Yan Yuejin, research director of the Think Tank Center of E-House Research Institute.

Many places have introduced new policies to curb high-priced "school district housing"

In fact, before the Politburo meeting made it clear to "prevent the speculation of housing prices in the name of school district housing," many governments have already The situation took action to rectify the "school district housing speculation".

On April 16, ten departments including the Xiamen City Housing Security and Housing Management Bureau issued the "Xiamen City Special Action Plan for Rectifying the Second-Hand Housing Market". One of the key areas of rectification is: through manufacturing and dissemination False information, or the use of concepts such as "school district housing" and "demolition housing" to drive up housing prices and promote excessive increases in housing prices.

On April 6, in order to accurately crack down on the speculation of second-hand housing and school district housing in some areas, the Hefei Municipal Housing Security and Real Estate Administration Bureau issued the "Notice on Further Promoting the Stable and Healthy Development of the City's Real Estate Market", clarifying Implement the enrollment period policy for complete housing in urban school districts. In addition, in order to accurately crack down on the speculation of second-hand housing and school district housing in some areas. The "Notice" clearly states that registered households in Hefei who own two or more houses within the urban area are suspended from purchasing second-hand housing within the school districts of Binhu New District, Government Affairs and Culture New District, High-tech Industrial Development Zone and other designated schools. The school districts included in the purchase restriction include 9 school districts in Luyang District, 6 school districts in Shushan District, and 2 school districts in the Economic Development Zone.

On April 2, the Beijing Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Commission announced that in response to strong public complaints about the behavior of real estate brokerage agencies speculating on housing in school districts, the department, together with relevant departments, carried out special law enforcement inspections of real estate brokerage agencies. , Cuiwei, Desheng, Financial Street in Xicheng District, Jiaodaokou in Dongcheng District and other areas with rapidly rising prices will conduct special law enforcement inspections. It is reported that from March 24 to April 2, 6 intermediary stores in Beijing were suspended for rectification, and 17 cases were filed and punished.

On April 1, according to news from the Shenzhen Municipal Administration for Market Regulation, starting from February 2021, the three departments of the Shenzhen Municipal Administration for Market Regulation, the Shenzhen Municipal Housing and Construction Bureau and the Shenzhen Municipal Education Bureau will implement a city-wide Special rectification actions against false and illegal advertisements such as "degree housing" will be carried out within the school.

On March 19, the Shanghai Real Estate Brokerage Industry Association launched a "self-discipline initiative to standardize listings and information release" to all real estate brokerages in Shanghai. The initiative focuses on issues of great concern to the society and the people, such as irregular release of housing information in the real estate agency field, false promotion of "school district housing", and inflated listing prices.

Among them, Lianjia, Pacific, Zhongyuan, I Love My Home, Qfang.com, 21st Century House, Xinyi Real Estate, Macalline Love Home, Zhiyuan Real Estate, Jiaxin Real Estate, 58 Anjuke, Soufun, Fourteen major real estate agencies and platform companies, including Fangyou and Xingfuli, responded to the initiative and signed letters of commitment on the spot. The company promises: Not to use "school district housing" for promotion and publicity in online and offline housing release information; in business operations, not to mislead home buyers in the name of "school district housing". Standardize the terms used to introduce educational resources and objectively introduce surrounding schools. Do not use terms such as "admission rate", "matching", "unused quota", etc. to mislead home buyers.

Yan Yuejin pointed out that this year, there are indeed many actions to control housing in school districts, especially in big cities, in terms of multi-school enrollment, balancing student sources, limiting school district time limits, ranking admissions, and preventing school district hype, etc. There are all kinds of actions. In addition, it should be noted that the speculation of housing in school districts is divided into primary and second-hand housing.

He predicts that there will be several important actions in terms of strict control in various places after May. First, second-hand houses that are listed with falsely high prices are generally in school districts, which will face strict control. Second, in terms of real estate sales of first-hand properties, if the school district is promoting it, they will also be interviewed. From the perspective of market loopholes, many concepts of school districts have appeared in many real estate marketing platforms, WeChat groups, and home buying applets, which need to be severely cracked down to truly promote the stable and healthy development of such markets.

"Cracking down on speculation of housing in school districts" may become the focus of regulation

The problems of "housing in school districts" in the real estate market have also attracted the attention of the central media.

A commentary article on the Central Broadcasting Network pointed out that compulsory education is a public product and is related to social equity and long-term development of the country. The principle of public welfare must always be placed first and should never be tainted with the smell of copper. The taste has become the object of speculation. However, in the past year, housing prices in many hot cities have risen, and many of them have been led by conceptual speculation such as "school district housing". Some prestigious schools also have the urge to industrialize and commercialize education. In some places, “prestigious schools” have also become a tool for local governments to sell land and attract investment. All these problems not only seriously undermine educational equity, but also create hidden worries for a country’s economic development, with endless consequences. All localities should conduct self-examination and self-correction as soon as possible. Deviations that should be corrected must be corrected, and those that should be held accountable must be held accountable. In addition, we should firmly adhere to the positioning of "housing is for living, not for speculation" and issue targeted detailed rules as soon as possible to stop the unhealthy trend of speculating on housing prices in the name of housing in school districts from the policy level.

While treating the symptoms, the root cause must also be treated. The reason why the housing problem in school districts has become a "stubborn problem" is, ultimately, because of the imbalance of educational resources. The education system should be further improved, efforts should be made to promote school construction, and efforts should be made to strengthen teacher exchanges, so that the nearby enrollment policy can truly exert a positive effect. When the supply of public education resources is sufficient and the distribution is balanced, school district housing will naturally lose the value and space for speculation.

In addition, a commentary article in Xinhua News Agency's "Half Moon Talk" also pointed out that the issue of high-priced school district housing is one of the current important anxiety issues for the people. To solve this problem, we must return to the public welfare nature of compulsory education and return to compulsory education. Key schools cannot be set up in the education stage, and compulsory education should return to balanced development. At present, relevant departments and localities should consider continuing to strengthen the exchange and rotation of principals and teachers, and formulate rigorous work plans to allow high-quality educational resources to flow smoothly.

The article points out that it is also essential to increase investment in education and reform efforts. It is recommended that relevant departments use reform thinking to promote the improvement of quality and efficiency in the compulsory education stage, coordinate and revitalize high-quality educational resources under ministries, provinces, and departments, and allow principals and teachers to move around, so that the people can share more dividends in the reform process.

Zou Linhua believes that the rise in "school district housing" begins with the binding of admission qualifications to whether to buy a house. To cool down the problem of “school district housing”, we should first decouple school admission from home purchase, and truly arrange school admission based on actual residence.

It suggested that we can refer to the mature experience of developed countries, and on the premise of protecting privacy, gradually promote the verification of actual living life and employment trajectory as the basis for nearby admissions, and prohibit the inspection of property ownership certificates during admission review. Prohibiting the inspection of property ownership certificates when entering school, instead of requiring inspections of rental certificates at the same time, is the core essence of equal rights to rent and purchase, and is also the mature experience of many developed countries. In the long run, promoting equalization of public services will fundamentally eliminate the ground for speculation about "school district housing".

“There are many reasons for the occurrence of housing in school districts, but the core behind it is the hype of real estate investment with the help of scarce resources. It is expected that subsequent regulatory policies will specifically target this type of housing to truly reduce the virtual fire of the housing market in school districts. "Zhang Dawei, chief analyst of Centaline Real Estate, said.