Chinese cities roll out housing subsidy to attract high-end talents

Some Chinese cities have started offering subsidy on housing purchase to attract talents, the Chinanews.com reported on Thursday.

Among these cities, Hangzhou, Suzhou's Industrial Park, Nanjing's Jiangbei New Area, Taizhou, Nanning and Jinan are providing subsidy worth millions of yuan.

In February, Hangzhou increased its housing subsidy to high-level talents working in the city to maximum of 8 million yuan to top-level talents, 2 million yuan to B-level, 1.5 million yuan to C-level and 1 million yuan to D-level.

The maximum subsidy to top-level talents in Suzhou's Industrial Park, Nanjing's Jiangbei New Area, Taizhou, Nanning and Jinan, is 5 million yuan, 3 million yuan, 3 million yuan, 2 million yuan and 1 million yuan, respectively.

Apart from giving quota for subsidizing housing purchase, others cities have issued subsidy based on housing price or deed tax.

Xingtai in Hebei province announced to give subsidy of 2 percent of the housing price to eligible talents such as people with bachelor's degree, senior technician, and senior engineer. Luzhou in Sichuan province will give subsidy of 3 percent, 2 percent and 1 percent of the housing price during March 2020 to February 2022, and the maximum will be 50,000 yuan.

In addition, Guilin, Hengyang, Chenzhou, Zhenjiang, Yulin, Qinzhou, Fuzhou and Zixing will implement subsidy based on deed tax of house purchase with the proportion from 30 percent to 100 percent.

Guilin said the medical workers who joined the front line battle against the COVID-19 will obtain 100 percent of deed tax return to buy new commodity housing. Zhenjiang will also give the same policy to the medical workers who joined the anti-epidemic fight in Hubei province.

However, Zhumadian in Henan province, Chifeng in Inner Mongolia autonomous region and Ningyang county in Shandong province have withdrawn their housing subsidy.

The three regions withdraw the policies means that the principle that "housing is for living in, not speculation" continues to play a role, said the Chinanews.com, citing Yan Yuejin, research director at E-house China R&D Institute.