Nanjing Lifts Restrictions on Sale of Commercial Housing, Sparks Debate with Comprehensive Housing Provident Fund Package.

On March 31, 2025, against the backdrop of China’s declining economy and the continued slump in the real estate sector, the core second-tier city of Nanjing has officially lifted the “sales restriction order” that has been in place for 8 years. In addition, Nanjing has introduced a comprehensive housing provident fund policy which allows homebuyers to utilize not only their own housing provident fund but also that of their parents and children towards the down payment, sparking heated discussions online.

Effective immediately from March 31st, Nanjing announced the cancellation of the sales restriction order across the entire city, allowing residential properties to be listed for trading upon obtaining the real estate registration certificate. Furthermore, the scope of utilizing housing provident fund for down payment has been expanded to include the funds of the homebuyer’s parents and children.

The news of “Nanjing cancels sales restriction on residential properties across the board” and “Nanjing introduces comprehensive housing provident fund policy to facilitate home purchases” quickly gained attention and sparked discussions on various online platforms.

Chinese economist Ma Guangyuan took to his Weibo account “Looking at the Economy” to comment, “The biggest highlight of this news is that the sales restrictions were just lifted…”

The founder and fund manager of Jintong Shengshi Investment Co. Ltd., Wuhan Liu Zhengtao, mentioned, “The cycle has ended, the era where you can only make profits from buying houses has become history. Now, it’s truly the age of essential housing needs. The idea of buying a house and making money is nothing but a pipe dream!”

Netizens commented, “Harvesting the entire family’s housing provident fund for one house,” “Lifting sales restrictions + tapping into six wallets,” “As the capital of an economically prosperous province, it seems like Nanjing is running out of options by only now lifting the sales restrictions,” “It’s not very useful, it’s all about getting you into debt, with minimal benefits,” “It’s a move that has to be made. Next step would be granting hukou, right?”

Previously, on May 13, 2017, Nanjing implemented the “sales restriction order,” which prohibited the transfer of newly purchased residential properties for the first three years after obtaining the property rights certificate. In August 2020, the CPC authorities introduced the so-called “three red lines” regulatory policy for real estate companies, leading to a series of defaults within the real estate sector.

Since 2022, Nanjing has relaxed the sales restriction order twice. First, by changing the requirement from “holding the real estate ownership certificate for at least 3 years” to “holding the contract record for at least 3 years”; and second, by allowing two specific groups to lift the restrictions: families purchasing new residential properties, whose existing second-hand properties were still under restriction, and families with two or more children and minors, whose restricted second-hand properties could also be listed for trading.

In September 2023, Nanjing became one of the first core second-tier cities to completely lift the restrictions on the purchase of residential properties.