As China ages, cities making it easier for larger families to buy homes

Several Chinese cities have introduced new policies to help families with multiple children buy a home.

Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, on Monday released a referential policy for the housing provident fund for families with three children.

Three-child families in the city who buy their first ordinary self-use home and apply for housing provident fund loans for the first time would be able to borrow 20 percent more than the current maximum loan limit.

Three-child families that do not have their own home but rent, can withdraw 50 percent more from the fund than the existing level.

The new policy aims to reduce the housing burden for multiple-child families, encouraging couples to have more children to counter China's aging population dilemma.

The National Health Commission said on Monday that China's total population will enter a stage of negative growth in the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), and an aging society with fewer children will become the new normal.

According to the NHC, the total fertility rate has dropped below 1.3 in recent years. It is estimated that China will enter a stage of severe ageing around 2035 – with more than 30 percent of the population older than 60.

Chinese families are also becoming smaller – the average size dropped to 2.62 people in 2020, a decrease of 0.48 people from 2010.

To combat the slowing birth rate, authorities in some other parts of China are also introducing family-friendly policies.

According to Securities Daily, more than 30 cities and regions including Cangzhou and Changsha have rolled out supportive policies such as relaxing purchase restrictions and granting home purchase subsidies for multiple-child families since the beginning of the year.

On July 31, Cangzhou City in Hebei Province near Beijing, introduced preferential policies to increase the housing provident fund loan amount for families with multiple children.

The maximum loan amount for two-child families rises 100,000 yuan (US$14,800), and the maximum for three-child families rises 200,000 yuan.

In Changsha, capital of Hunan Province in southern China, the maximum amount of housing provident fund loans has been increased to 800,000 yuan for three-child families.

Yan Yuejin, director of the E-house China R&D Institute, said such measures can further reduce the cost of buying a house for multiple-child families, stimulate market demand, and also protect the rights of families with multiple children to buy a house.