Beijing further eases home-buying qualifications to spur realty demand

Beijing’s municipal authorities further eased curbs on home purchases on Wednesday, lowering the threshold for home-buying qualifications, in the latest efforts to boost ‍demand amid ‌worsening home prices in the Chinese capital.

Non-local residents — those without a ‍Beijing “hukou” — can now buy homes in the capital if they have made consecutive income tax payments in the city for ‍at least one year, down from two years previously.

Families with ‍more than one child will also be allowed to buy an additional home in downtown Beijing, municipal housing authorities added in a statement.

Second-home buyers using loans from China’s housing provident fund will now face a minimum down payment requirement of ‌25%, down from 30%. New home prices in Beijing ‍have been falling month-on-month in the past quarter, heaping pressure on local authorities to do more to shore up the ​market.

In August, Beijing scrapped home-purchase limits for qualified buyers in the city’s suburban areas, but kept the curbs in place within the ​Fifth ‍Ring Road, a major expressway around the central area.

Chinese officials ‌this week pledged to step up efforts to stabilise the property market in 2026, and implement city-specific strategies to optimise supply and reduce ​inventories.

Concerns over the ‌crisis-hit sector have deepened after state-backed China Vanke shocked the market last month by seeking a public bond extension for its 2 billion yuan ($285.12 million) note due on December 15 by ‌a further year.

The builder is also seeking to delay repayments by a year for another onshore note due to mature on December 28.

Meanwhile, China’s farmers are up to their ears in milk and Beijing’s decision to apply tariffs on dairy imports from the European Union is expected to give them a measure of protection as they branch out into higher-margin products like cream and butter.

“The country’s milk oversupply plays ‍a significant role in the ‌government’s decision to impose tariffs ... the whole Chinese dairy industry has been losing profits in the last four years, ⁠the industry has been bleeding,” said Yifan ‍Li, head of Dairy Asia at StoneX, a commodity-focused financial services firm.

He added that government subsidies in China decreased in 2025 as a sluggish economy weighed on state finances.

The higher duties on imports of unsweetened milk and cream and fresh and processed cheeses from the EU, which kicked off on Tuesday and range from 21.9% ‍to 42.7% , were the latest move in a series of tit-for-tat measures since the bloc applied tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.

China has recently significantly lowered ‍provisional tariffs on pork from the EU following anti-dumping investigations on brandy and pork.

MILK INDUSTRY TRENDS PROMPT SHIFT Milk output in China, the world’s third-largest producer, surged to more than 40 million tonnes last year from 30.39 million tonnes in 2017. At the same time, consumption fell to 12.6 kg per person in 2024 from 14.4 kg in 2021, hurt by the nation’s falling birthrate. Prices in recent years have sat at or below average production costs of around 3.02 yuan ($0.4298) per kg, causing many loss-making farms to shut down or sell cows for beef.

Lian Yabing, a dairy analyst at Beijing Orient Agribusiness Consultants, said ‌over 90% of China’s dairy farmers were not making a profit.

“The tariff decision is definitely an opportunity for top dairy producers like ‍Yili and Mengniu, which are stepping up butter, cream and cheese production this year,” Lian said.

China’s milk glut and changing consumer dairy demands have pushed the country’s suppliers to make higher-margin products over the past year, Li said, making it less reliant on imports.

“A few years ago, only a handful of top ​dairy producers were making cream and butter, now there are at least 40,” he said.

Cream, which is easier to process than butter, has received a boost from the milk tea boom in China, with chains like Heytea and Chagee using the product in their ready-made drinks.

Han, an organic dairy farmer in southern Yunnan province, said he was ​part of a ‍niche market of producers making small amounts of European-style (changed French to European, he also makes swiss cheeses) cheeses like blue cheese and brie. He said ‌demand has lately outstripped supply for traditional Western cheeses.

“For the few premium cheese producers in China, the impact is minimal because the production volume is too small,” he said. “But this can be a signal that the government is formulating this tariff policy to protect its own domestic dairy industry.”

Agencies