Xinhua All Media+｜ Promoting Rent and Purchase and Expanding the Benefit of the System —— A Summary of the 30th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Housing Provident Fund System in China
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, November 29th Title: Promote rent and purchase and expand the system benefits — — Summary of the 30th Anniversary of the Establishment of Housing Provident Fund System in China
Xinhua News Agency reporters Wang Youling and Zheng Juntian
From allowing only employees with units to pay to flexible employees, from mainly supporting employees to buy houses with loans to supporting both rent and purchase, from "window handling" to "one-stop operation" … … Since the establishment of the housing provident fund system in China for 30 years, it has continuously innovated and improved its services, expanded the coverage of the system, and strongly supported the basic housing needs of the people.
The pilot project of housing provident fund "paying rent on a monthly basis" recently broke the ice in Guangzhou. 23-year-old Xu Zhiyi just entered Guangzhou this year, and the house she rented is the pilot coverage project.
"The company helped me pay the housing provident fund. After I finished the application procedure, I automatically deducted the rent every month, which eased the economic pressure of a newly graduated college student like me." Sitting on the sofa of the rental house, Xu Zhiyi told the reporter that the housing leasing enterprises have special concessions for paying the tenants of the housing provident fund, which not only exempts the rental deposit, but also discounts the rent.
Xu Wei introduced the situation to reporters in the rental house. (photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Youling)
Reportedly, in Guangzhou’s "monthly rent repayment" service project, the housing provident fund management center is connected with depositors and leasing institutions to realize automatic deduction of housing provident fund to pay rent on a monthly basis. When the depositor rents a house, he applies to use the balance of the housing provident fund account for automatic repayment, and automatically withdraws the housing provident fund to pay the rent on a monthly basis.
Liu Yang, the person in charge of the leasing enterprise that provides housing for Xu Zhiyi, said that cooperating with the housing provident fund center, the rent is paid by the provident fund on a monthly basis, and the procedures are not complicated, which can bring high-quality and stable customers to the enterprise and greatly reduce the management cost.
In recent years, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has conscientiously implemented the requirements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, promoted the establishment of a housing system with multi-subject supply, multi-channel guarantee and simultaneous rent and purchase, and better supported diversified basic housing needs such as renting and buying houses, which is also a timely move for the service innovation and promotion of the housing provident fund system.
The housing accumulation fund system was first established in Shanghai in 1991, and then it was generally established and developed throughout the country. According to the data of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, by the end of 2020, a total of 19.6 trillion yuan of housing accumulation fund had been collected, 12.3 trillion yuan had been withdrawn, and 11.1 trillion yuan of personal housing loans had been issued, helping more than 58 million depositors to purchase houses with loans.
The person in charge of the relevant departments of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said that in the past 30 years, the housing provident fund system has fully demonstrated mutual assistance and security in solving the housing problem, the construction of laws and regulations has been continuously improved, the efficiency of fund use has been continuously improved, the service level has been comprehensively improved, and the information construction has been continuously accelerated, which has played an important role in promoting the realization of housing.
According to reports, in order to support the housing needs of new citizens, young people and other groups, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development is conducting pilot projects for flexible employees to participate in the housing provident fund system in some cities such as Chongqing to further expand the coverage of the system.
In recent years, the housing provident fund system has also played a "helping hand" in the shared property housing gradually popularized in some big cities. Shanghai, Guangzhou and other cities have put forward differentiated loan, withdrawal and repayment policies for housing provident fund depositors who purchase shared property houses to help those who just need them realize their dream of living in peace.
In support of the construction of affordable housing, the person in charge of the relevant departments of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said that the value-added income generated by the operation of the housing provident fund will be fully used for the construction of urban public rental housing (low-rent housing) after the loan risk reserve and the management expenses of the housing provident fund management center are reserved. By the end of 2020, the accumulated supplementary funds for the construction of urban public rental housing (low-rent housing) were 469.2 billion yuan.
The free flow of housing provident fund across provinces has always been a "pain point" for service. The floating population in China exceeds 200 million, and the demand for housing provident fund depositors to deposit and use housing provident fund in different places is increasing.
Cui Bin, who bought a house in Nanjing and paid the housing provident fund in Shanghai, has this urgent need. She couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief when she looked at the information on the mobile phone that 150 thousand yuan of housing provident fund had been paid.
"I was worried about running back and forth a few times to extract it. I didn’t expect it to be so convenient." She told reporters that in the housing provident fund service column of the "One Netcom Office" platform in the Yangtze River Delta, you only need to fill in and confirm personal identity, real estate and other information, and you can complete the business with a little finger, so that the funds can arrive quickly.
Interface of housing accumulation fund service column website in Yangtze River Delta. (Photo courtesy of the respondents)
The relevant person in charge of the Shanghai Provident Fund Management Center introduced that the integration of housing provident fund in the Yangtze River Delta has achieved "zero running, zero materials and zero waiting" in 19 pilot cities in one city, three provinces. Four "inter-provincial general office" services, such as the registration and account opening of housing provident fund units and the change of deposit information of housing provident fund units, have also been launched on the "One Network Office" platform in the Yangtze River Delta recently, and the business scope has been further expanded.
In the interview, the reporter learned that the housing provident fund system promotes information construction based on the needs of depositors and constantly overcomes obstacles in data sharing, interaction and standardization in various provinces. In 2019, a data platform was built to connect the data of all housing provident fund management institutions, laying the foundation for providing unified and convenient services.
Let the data run more and the people run less errands. In 2021, the national housing provident fund applet was completed and launched, which can provide inquiries about the deposit and use of housing provident fund for 150 million paid employees, as well as transfer and connection services in different places. Under the support of information technology, the housing provident fund system realizes the inter-provincial communication of high-frequency services of housing provident fund through three ways: the whole network office, the joint office of the two places and the collection agency.