The government of Shanxi Province in North China has abolished all restrictions on the purchase of commercial apartments, according to a weekend report by Shanxi Daily.
Shanxi Province stopped applying restrictions based on buyers' registered permanent residence status (hukou), their ages and the number of units they are allowed to own, according to a government statement released on Thursday, Nov.19.
The new policy also removed rules that required real estate operators to report prices to the authorities before selling existing homes and accepting reservations for units.
Bans on purchases by foreign individuals and institutions were also lifted with the policy change.
According to a Sunday report by the online news portal ifeng.com, Shanxi is now the fourth province to end all purchasing restrictions over commercial apartments. It now joins Gansu, Sichuan and Anhui, provinces that previously lifted similar restrictions.
The new policy gives developers greater control to adjust the composition of the units they put up for sale, according to the government statement. This assumes that they have not changed the conditions such as the function of land use and the plot ratio.
The policy also reiterated Shanxi's housing credit policy. In Shanxi, first-time buyers must pay a downpayment of no less than 30 percent, while their mortgage interest rate cannot be any lower than 0.7 times the benchmark interest rate.
These mortgage conditions also apply to those who intend to upgrade their units, assuming they have paid their first mortgage. Those who have not yet paid their earlier mortgages have to pay a downpayment of no less than 40 percent.
The statement also said that banks are not allowed to charge more than the benchmark interest rate on mortgages for both first-time buyers and those upgrading.