Trade-in moves in housing gather steam

A property project under construction in Hefei, Anhui province. "Data from various cities showed their local trade-in initiatives are well underway, meeting the needs of potential homebuyers who plan to improve their housing conditions," said Li Yujia, chief researcher at the Guangdong Planning Institute's residential policy research center. "Home trade-ins could spawn a market worth more than 1 trillion yuan, and local governments can leverage this housing demand by using various methodologies," said Yan Jinqiang, an expert with the China Society of Urban Economy, in an interview with Xinhua News Agency. According to Yan, as more cities join, the trade-in measures will likely be categorized into three types: purchasing old flats via a government-backed entity; giving priority to selling the pre-owned home by real estate agencies; and offering subsidies or favorable conditions for home transactions. Industry experts said the trade-in activities initiated by local governments are a response to the tone-setting meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee on April 30, which stressed that the real estate market should digest housing inventories and optimize new demand.