Several Chinese cities have lowered thresholds and broadened uses for housing
provident fund loans and withdrawals this year. Guangzhou raised provident fund
loan limits across the board and introduced targeted support for child-rearing
households; multiple uplift conditions can be stacked — newly married households
with one child receive a 10% loan-amount uplift, while two-child and
three-or-more-child households receive 40%-50% uplifts. Suzhou (Jiangsu)
implemented a new round of measures from June, increasing individual and family
loan ceilings, enabling multi-scenario loan-limit uplifts, and permitting
provident funds to be used to pay property deed tax. From July 15, Yangzhou
upgraded its provident fund service to allow contributors to withdraw funds via
mobile to pay property management fees. Positive effects on housing consumption
are beginning to emerge.
