Three localities have officially announced the implementation of existing home sales policies within ten days. Will housing prices rise, or will real estate developers be the first to be unable to hold out?

Completed property sales are becoming one of the conditions for local residential land transfer.

On September 9, the Quanzhou Bureau of Natural Resources and Planning issued an announcement, stating that it will centrally transfer 4 plots of land located in Fengze District on September 29, with a total land area of nearly 200 mu. Among them, Plot No. Feng 2026-13 (hereinafter referred to as Plot 13) located in the Donghai Central Vitality Zone clearly requires the implementation of three basic systems: the project company system, the lead bank system, and the completed property sales system. The project progress standard for the existing sale of commercial housing is: the completion acceptance and filing of the project has been completed, and the first registration of the house has been completed.

Reporters from National Business Daily noted that right after the "August 28 New Property Market Policy", multiple cities including Xiamen and Lishui have clearly included "completed property sales" into the land transfer conditions in their latest publicly listed land transfer announcements.

Yan Yuejin, Vice President of E-House China R&D Institute, pointed out that in the short term, completed property sales will delay the available time of new housing sources, which may lead to a phased supply gap in some local areas. From the current practical operation perspective, completed property sales are only applied to a small number of high-quality plots, so the overall impact on the relationship between supply and demand is limited.

Three Regions Officially Announce Completed Property Sales Rules

According to the land transfer announcement of the Quanzhou Bureau of Natural Resources and Planning, the transfer area of Plot 13 is about 19,700 square meters, with a floor area ratio of ≤ 2.8, and a constructible volume of about 55,000 square meters. The plot shall implement the three systems of project company system, lead bank system and completed property sales system, and accept the supervision of the housing and urban-rural development department.

Reporters from National Business Daily learned that among them, the project company system requires the development company to obtain the qualification of real estate development enterprise, with registered capital not less than 20% of the total investment of the project, independently exercise legal person rights and independently bear civil liabilities in accordance with the law; before the project is delivered, investors are strictly prohibited from withdrawing project sales and financing funds, and from evading capital contribution and making advance dividends; the lead bank system requires the development company to independently select a lead bank, which takes the lead in issuing real estate development loans, shares risks and benefits with the project development company; funds such as project capital, development loans and sales returns are uniformly collected into the special supervision account of the lead bank; the completed property sales system requires the project to apply for the existing sales filing only after completing the completion acceptance filing and the first registration of real estate.

"These three systems are the core institutional framework for the new real estate development model constructed by the 'August 28 New Property Market Policy'," Yan Yuejin said, corresponding to the development model, financing model and sales system respectively.

In fact, this is not the first plot in Fujian to promote the completed property sales model.

On September 3 this year, among the two newly listed residential-related plots in Xiamen, Plot 2026P13 in Huli District (hereinafter referred to as Plot P13) also requires the implementation of completed property sales. According to the transfer announcements of these two plots, Plot P13 is a low-density plot in the core area of Xiamen Island, with a floor area ratio of 1.2, a land area of about 51,000 square meters, and a starting floor price of 58,100 yuan per square meter, which clearly requires completed property sales; the project progress standard for the existing sale of commercial housing is: the completion acceptance and filing of the project has been completed, and the first registration of the house has been completed.

Not only in Fujian, on September 1 this year, the transfer announcements of the two residential-related land plots listed in Qingtian County, Lishui City, Zhejiang Province also clearly stated that "available commercial housing is required to implement completed property sales".

"The impact of the 'August 28 New Property Market Policy' on the land market is still in the initial stage of transmission," Cao Jingjing, General Manager of the Index Research Department of China Index Academy, said. With the improvement of pre-sale conditions, the promotion of completed property sales and the change of capital return cycle, the capital threshold for real estate enterprises to acquire land and develop will be further raised, and the land acquisition capacity of some real estate enterprises may be affected, and the differentiation of the land market is expected to intensify.

CRIC said that in the coming period, the market will maintain a dual-track operation of "completed property sales + capped pre-sale". As more newly transferred plots with completed property sales requirements enter the market gradually, the proportion of completed housing supply will increase gradually.

A New Equilibrium Price Is Required

In fact, the requirement for completed property sales did not appear after the "August 28 New Property Market Policy". Since last year, some cities have begun to explore the completed property sales model.

In the second half of 2025, four departments in Xinyang, Henan took the lead in issuing documents, proposing to promote the transformation of commercial housing from pre-sale to existing sale in a stable and gradual manner, and making it clear that commercial housing projects on newly transferred land in the central urban area shall all implement completed property sales.

In November 2025, Pingjiang, Hunan issued the "Several Measures for Comprehensively Implementing Completed Property Sales and the Planning and Construction of 'High-Quality Houses' (Trial)". It clearly stipulates that for new commercial housing projects on newly transferred land, commercial housing sales can only be launched after the completion acceptance, and a package of burden reduction policies are provided at the same time, including halving administrative and institutional fees, preferential land prices, and shortening approval time limits. The local proportion of completed property sales has reached 62%, making it the first county in Hunan to fully implement completed property sales.

According to statistics from China Index Academy, since the end of 2022, 39 regions across the country have piloted completed property sales and issued relevant support policies.

Judging from the current land supply situation in various regions, the implementation pace of completed property sales is relatively moderate, accounting for only a very small part. The monitoring data of CRIC shows that after the "August 28 New Property Market Policy" (before September 9), among the 18 new residential plots launched in Chengdu, Suzhou, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Lishui of Zhejiang and other cities, 3 plots clearly require completed property sales, accounting for 16.7%, including 2 plots in Lishui of Zhejiang and 1 plot in Huli of Xiamen.

"With the detailed rules for completed property sales in various regions being implemented one after another, the plots listed according to the new rules will gradually enter the market, the threshold of the land market is expected to be further raised, and real estate enterprises will be more prudent and refined in land acquisition," CRIC analysis pointed out. For real estate enterprises that still have investment capacity, focusing on the core sectors of core cities, strictly controlling the capital occupation of a single project, and improving the product premium capacity will be the key to getting through the system transition period.

CITIC Securities pointed out in its latest research report that under the completed property sales model, the time point for real estate enterprises to recover sales funds is delayed, and the time point for individual mortgage loans to be issued is also delayed to the completion acceptance of the project, which reduces the cash return of enterprises and reduces the funds available for investment.

Under the assumption that the real estate price remains unchanged, the IRR (Internal Rate of Return) of traditional pre-sale, capped pre-sale and completed property sales are 15.8%, 4.8% and 3.6% respectively; the extended capital occupation time also increases the cost, and the net profit margins of traditional pre-sale, capped pre-sale and completed property sales are 6.0%, 4.0% and 2.4% respectively. In this context, the land market needs to find a new equilibrium price, and it is expected to shrink in the short term.

This article is from the WeChat Official Account "NBD Real Estate", author: Chen Li, authorized for release by 36Kr.