Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Wuhan implement new regulations on commercial housing sales to promote existing home sales

Recently, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou City in Guangdong Province, and Wuhan City in Hubei Province have successively issued relevant implementation opinions on the implementation of the "Notice on Improving the Commercial Housing Sales System." What changes will the new regulations bring, and how can they improve the sense of security for home buyers?

Which new homes can be sold as existing homes?

Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Wuhan have all made it clear that August 28, 2026 will be the time cutoff (the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Natural Resources, and the State Administration of Financial Supervision jointly issued the "Notice on Improving the Commercial Housing Sales System" on August 28). Commercial housing projects with new land transfer announcements will be given priority for sales of existing homes.

Beijing and Shanghai clearly require that the project complete the first registration of the house - that is, the project is completed and the "big property ownership certificate" is obtained before the existing house sales record can be processed.

Wuhan requires that real estate development companies should formulate a sales plan for existing houses after completing the first registration of real estate. After filing with the municipal housing management department, they should organize sales according to the sales plan for existing houses.

Guangzhou requires real estate development companies to complete the completion inspection and acceptance of water and electricity supporting facilities before they can register existing houses; at the same time, enterprises are encouraged to complete the first registration of houses before selling them.

What are the new rules for pre-sales of new homes?

Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou have made it clear that for commercial housing projects with new land transfer announcements after August 28, 2026, the individual buildings must complete the main structure capping before they can be pre-sold.

Wuhan has clarified that if commercial housing projects with newly transferred land after August 28, 2026 implement pre-sale, the main structure of the single building should complete the concrete pouring of the roof structure layer. After confirming that the topping-out project has been achieved, the project can apply for a pre-sale license.

Clear deposit limit

Beijing stipulates that in a house purchase deposit contract, the deposit generally does not exceed 1% of the total house price. Shanghai stipulates that in a house purchase deposit contract, the deposit generally does not exceed 3% of the total purchase price. At the same time, both places have made it clear that if the real estate development company defaults and fails to deliver the house on time, the house buyer has the right to terminate the deposit contract in accordance with the contract.

Guangzhou stipulates that the deposit collected by real estate development companies shall not be higher than 5% of the total price of the house. The house purchase deposit contract should stipulate the amount of the deposit, the selling price of the commercial housing, the delivery time, and the liability for failure to perform the contract on time.

Wuhan stipulates that real estate development companies should sign a deposit contract with home buyers through the commercial housing contract online signing and filing system and go through the contract filing procedures in a timely manner. In principle, the deposit should not exceed 5% of the total purchase price.

All four places have made it clear that house sales deposits will be fully and fully supervised.

Beijing, Shanghai, and Wuhan clearly require real estate development companies to include deposits for existing home sales into the management of capital accounts opened at the host bank, which will be supervised by local housing transaction regulatory agencies.

Guangzhou clearly requires real estate development companies to deposit all deposits paid by home buyers into deposit supervision accounts, and the deposits cannot be used during the supervision period.

In addition, in terms of policy coordination, the four places have also launched a series of measures: including increasing supervision of the real estate market, standardizing market order, and effectively safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of home buyers; establishing and improving the quality assurance system for commercial housing projects, coordinating and promoting the construction of "good houses"; continuing to optimize the approval process, and improving the efficiency of management services.

Overall, the key words of this round of new housing sales policies in the four cities include raising the pre-sale threshold, strengthening capital supervision, and gradually promoting the sales of existing homes. The implementation of the new regulations is expected to provide home buyers with more security.