Detailed regulations for reforming the commercial housing sales system have been successively implemented in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.

On September 30, the Guangzhou Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau, the Guangzhou Municipal Planning and Natural Resources Bureau, and the Guangdong Regulatory Bureau of the National Financial Regulatory Administration issued implementation opinions on carrying out the "Notice on Improving the Commercial Housing Sales System," effective from the date of publication.

Previously, on August 28, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Natural Resources, and the National Financial Regulatory Administration jointly issued the "Notice on Improving the Commercial Housing Sales System," deploying localities to vigorously and orderly promote completed housing sales, achieve "what you see is what you get," reduce delivery disputes over commercial housing, fundamentally prevent delivery risks, safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of homebuyers, and accelerate the construction of a new model for real estate development.

The aforementioned "Notice" clearly improved the management of commercial housing pre-sales, uniformly raising the pre-sale threshold for commercial housing to "topping out of the main structure," while vigorously and orderly promoting completed housing sales.

After the "Notice" was implemented, Beijing and Shanghai successively issued supporting implementation opinions on September 24 and September 28.

With the detailed rules now in place across Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, industry insiders believe this can provide reference for more cities, and more cities are expected to accelerate follow-up actions.

What are the differences among the three cities' rules?

Chen Wenjing, Policy Research Director at the China Index Academy, pointed out that overall, Guangzhou is highly aligned with Beijing and Shanghai on key aspects such as pre-sale thresholds, transition arrangements for in-progress projects and pre-sale fund supervision, mortgage disbursement timing, and the lead bank system, while showing clear local differentiation in deposit caps, conditions for releasing funds from supervision, land supply, and supporting policies.

According to Guangzhou's "Implementation Opinions," for commercial housing projects whose state-owned construction land use right transfer announcements are published after August 28, 2026, those implementing pre-sales must have the individual building's main structure topped out.

The China Index Academy noted that this progress requirement is consistent with Shanghai and somewhat more relaxed compared to Beijing, which requires a signed and sealed "Main Structure Sub-division Engineering Acceptance Record" issued by construction, survey, design, construction, and supervision units.

For in-progress projects, classified measures are clearly defined, with the classification method and transition arrangements basically consistent with Beijing.

Regarding completed housing deposit management, Guangzhou, Beijing, and Shanghai have the same timing for signing deposit contracts for completed housing sales, all requiring developers to sign purchase deposit contracts with buyers after obtaining the construction permit, with the deposit amount, commercial housing price, delivery time, and liability for failure to perform on schedule stipulated in the contract.

The difference lies in the collection cap: Beijing generally does not exceed 1% of the total housing price, Shanghai does not exceed 3% of the total purchase price, and Guangzhou must not exceed 5% of the total housing price, the highest ratio among the three.

In optimizing land supply management, Guangzhou explicitly explores the establishment of mortgages on divided state-owned construction land use rights. After a real estate development project obtains the construction project planning permit, the corresponding share of state-owned construction land use rights is calculated based on the proportion of the building area of the real estate unit to the total building area of the parcel, and a mortgage is established through the collection of state-owned construction land use right shares.

Industry observers believe that divided mortgages help accelerate transactions and financing pace, and this rule is clearly beneficial to both homebuyers and real estate enterprises.

It is worth noting that in addition to common arrangements such as land transfer with planning schemes, net land transfer, and "start construction upon land acquisition," Guangzhou separately includes a section on "strengthening policy coordination," explicitly supporting phased and building-by-building processing of planning permits, construction permits, civil defense filing, pre-sale permits, completed housing filing, and completion acceptance filing; after obtaining the land real estate pre-registration certificate, construction project planning permits, construction permits, and real estate surveying can be processed first, and houses corresponding to the portion of land transfer price already paid can be sold; administrative approval implements the notification commitment system and acceptance with missing documents; encourages intelligent construction, prefabricated buildings, and prefabricated decoration; and explores establishing mortgages with divided state-owned construction land use right shares.

Pratt Real Estate Research believes these arrangements collectively point to one goal: using approval and financing tools to offset the capital and construction period occupation brought by "topped-out pre-sales + completion filing for disbursement + fund supervision until first registration." This is the most obvious difference between Guangzhou's rules and those of Beijing and Shanghai.

What is the impact on the housing market?

In the past, the real estate industry operated on a model of high turnover, early pre-sales, early cash collection, and rolling development. With the implementation of local rules, industry observers believe the logic of development, financing, sales, and delivery for real estate enterprises will also be reshaped.

Pratt Real Estate Research pointed out that with all three sets of rules in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou now implemented, first-tier cities have entered a new stage of commercial housing sales system transition.

The three cities have different approaches: Beijing is strict on funds and detailed on standards; Shanghai is lenient on transition and supplements parameters later; Guangzhou concentrates the widest deposit cap, the most detailed fund supervision, and the strongest development coordination in a single document.

For real estate enterprises, Beijing released the first commercial housing land transfer announcement after the new policy on September 30, with the transaction documents clearly stating: this land transfer must strictly implement the relevant provisions of the "Notice of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Ministry of Natural Resources, and National Financial Regulatory Administration on Improving the Commercial Housing Sales System" (Jian Fang Gui [2026] No. 3) and the "Implementation Opinions for Carrying Out in This Municipality" (Jing Jian Fa [2026] No. 460).

Regarding land price payment, for enterprises that participate in pre-application for land use and win the land, 50% of the land price must be paid within 30 calendar days after signing the transfer contract, with the remaining amount paid within 24 months after signing the transfer contract; for enterprises that win land without participating in pre-application, the down payment deadline and ratio remain unchanged, with the remaining amount paid within 18 months after signing the transfer contract.

Pan Pan, Chief Consultant Expert at Beijing Centaline Property, believes that installment payment of land price is an important adjustment tool that can effectively reduce the initial capital pressure on real estate enterprises when acquiring land, lower the pre-application deposit, reduce the land acquisition threshold, and attract more enterprises to participate in bidding.

Tongce Research Institute believes that from an institutional perspective, pre-sale housing sales and completed housing sales are institutional arrangements for different development stages of the housing market, both with rationality under their historical backgrounds. The current housing market has entered a stock stage, and completed housing sales are the institutional guarantee for high-quality good homes.

From the supply side of the industry, raising pre-sale standards and the completed housing sales model will only affect new market entries and will not have a major impact on overall supply.

From the buyer's perspective, under the pre-sale model, once a purchase contract is signed, the bank begins disbursement and the buyer bears repayment responsibility; even if the project stalls, the loan cannot be stopped. Under the completed housing sales model, this problem can be effectively avoided.

At the same time, it will also avoid problems such as unfinished buildings, mismatched goods, and delayed delivery, greatly enhancing purchase security.