Reverse subsidy leads to fairness query： minor repair or major reform of provident fund？
Editor’s Note: Housing is a major event that residents are generally concerned about. The report of the 19th National Congress pointed out that "let all people live in a house", which made people with housing difficulties feel excited. How to solve the problem and complete the task? The support and guarantee of housing provident fund system is an important part.
The housing accumulation fund system is the product of China’s housing system reform. At present, the real estate industry has undergone great changes, and the economic and social environment has also undergone great changes. The housing provident fund system faces many challenges and challenges in the new era, which has become a hot topic of concern from all walks of life and a major problem that society expects to solve.
In recent years, from national to local, the housing accumulation fund system has been continuously explored and reformed, but some fundamental problems still need to be solved. Especially in the context of accelerating the establishment of a long-term mechanism for the real estate market, accelerating the new urbanization and the integration of new citizens into cities, it is even more urgent for the provident fund to better play its role of connecting industries and the government and providing policy-oriented financial support to help achieve the goal of "all people live and live".
Want to buy a house, is the provident fund reliable?
— — Road-finding provident fund: minor repairs or major changes (1)
Half-monthly talk reporter Tao Ye Yu Xianhong Lu Chang Hu Ruohan
It has been nearly 30 years since the birth of China’s housing accumulation fund system in the early 1990s. As an important tool for the transformation of China’s housing system from welfare housing distribution to marketization, it has played a very important role in promoting the housing system reform in China and improving the living conditions of residents. However, with the continuous development of economy and society, the housing market environment is constantly changing. Now, if you want to buy a house, can the provident fund be reliable?
Where did it come from?
In the era of planned economy, China implemented the housing system of "low rent, high subsidy, welfare system and distribution in kind" for urban workers. Urban housing was regarded as the welfare of workers and almost lived for free, and the rent was determined not by cost but by affordability.
Hu Zuquan, an associate researcher at the Macroeconomic Research Office of the Economic Forecasting Department of the National Information Center, said that this welfare housing allocation model caused a large shortage of urban housing construction funds and consumption funds, and the urban housing shortage was serious: the per capita living area in cities and towns dropped from 4.5 square meters in 1950 to 3.6 square meters in 1978, and the number of households lacking housing reached 8.69 million, accounting for 47.5% of the total urban households at that time.
In this context, the housing accumulation fund system emerged as the product of urban housing reform. Through the housing monetization distribution and housing financing mechanism supported by the state, subsidized by the unit and reasonably borne by the individual, we will open up a stable source of funds for urban housing construction. In 1991, Shanghai took the lead in establishing the housing provident fund system, marking the official start of China’s housing provident fund system.
In 1999, the State Council issued the Regulations on the Management of Housing Provident Fund, which marked that the housing provident fund system officially entered a period of standardization and legalization. Since then, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and other relevant departments have made a series of specific provisions on strengthening the management of provident fund and improving the supervision mechanism.
After more than 20 years of development, the housing accumulation fund system has become a "stabilizer" and "booster" for local governments to improve residents’ living conditions and ensure the stable development of the real estate market.
"As a product of the housing system reform, China’s housing provident fund system has promoted the institutional transition from physical distribution to currency trading, and promoted the transformation of the housing system from welfare to market." Huang Yanfen, a professor at the School of Public Administration of Renmin University of China, said.
For whom?
Since its introduction, benefiting as many urban residents as possible has always been one of the goals of the provident fund system. At present, how many people and who are enjoying the benefits of housing provident fund?
Xiao Zhang, who works in a barber shop in Hubei, never thought about using the provident fund, because he never paid the provident fund, let alone using the provident fund loan to buy a house. Peng Wen, who works in Nanchang, considered that the interest rate of provident fund loans was relatively low, and he intended to use provident fund loans during the purchase this year to reduce the pressure on monthly supply. However, he found that the two banks that cooperated with the developers made it clear that they would not accept provident fund loans.
Their experience is not a case. Judging from the data reflected in the 2016 Annual Report of the National Housing Provident Fund, inclusiveness is still an unattainable goal of the current housing provident fund system.
The low coverage rate in the payment link of housing provident fund and the low individual loan rate in the use link (the ratio of accumulated loan households to accumulated deposit households) are particularly typical. On the one hand, as of the end of 2016, nearly 70% of the urban employees in the country still did not pay the housing provident fund; On the other hand, the rate of individual loan households in eastern provinces is generally low, and the rate of individual loan households in Guangdong is less than 20%.
From the loan link, the 2016 Annual Report of National Housing Provident Fund shows that low-income groups account for 35.96%, middle-income groups account for 58.86%, and high-income groups account for 5.18%. Of the houses purchased and built with loan support, 31.07% are houses with an area of less than 90 square meters, 59.20% are houses with an area of 90-144 square meters, and 9.73% are houses with an area of more than 144 square meters.
Gao Guangchun, an associate researcher in national academy of economic strategy, believes that the proportion of middle-and high-income groups is far lower than that of ultra-low-income groups, and provident fund as a "booster" for low-income groups is still insufficient.
A research project of China Institute of Income Distribution of Beijing Normal University also found that at present, people with good education and higher wages and urban residents who are employed in the system are more likely to withdraw provident fund; It is difficult for individuals with lower wages to withdraw the paid housing provident fund.
Speed up reform
In recent years, in order to expand the coverage of provident fund, various localities have made various attempts in terms of deposit scope and withdrawal process, so that more people can use provident fund more conveniently.
Cai Qiuxun, a 24-year-old from Baoluan Town, Fengdu County, is a freelancer engaged in surveying and mapping in Chongqing. Because he has no fixed work unit, he has never expected to buy a house with a provident fund loan. In October 2016, Fengdu County, Chongqing explored the pilot project of migrant workers paying provident fund.
Cai Qiuxun began to pay the provident fund in January this year, and paid it to 140 yuan every month. After six months, he can get a loan. With a loan of 360,000 yuan from the provident fund, Cai Qiuxun successfully bought a 107-square-meter house, "paying less interest by almost 100,000 yuan".
In Beijing, in order not to let the cumbersome process become the obstacle for the masses to use the provident fund, in August this year, the Beijing Housing Provident Fund Management Center put forward a new method for the deposit and withdrawal of housing provident fund, and further simplified the process and materials for withdrawing the provident fund. At the same time, Beijing has continuously strengthened the support of the provident fund for renting houses.
In Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, from October 27th, employees no longer need to raise funds in advance when repaying loans. By hedging the loan repayment business, they can use the balance of provident fund accounts to offset personal mortgages, thus improving the efficiency of the use of provident fund.
Reform at the national level has also been advancing. From July 1st this year, the long-awaited national housing accumulation fund transfer and connection platform was put into use. The completion of the platform has built a bridge for the transfer of provident fund between different places, and realized that "accounts go with people and money goes with accounts".
How sick and questioned.
— — Road-finding provident fund: minor repairs or major changes (Part II)
Half-monthly talk with reporter Yu Xianhong and Lu Chang Tao Ye.
Although the provident fund system has accelerated the pace of reform in recent years, in the context of rising housing prices, many shortcomings of the provident fund system have been exposed, and the mutual protection function has been weakened, which has been questioned by the society.
Managing "multiple policies", the fund pools are isolated from each other.
Housing accumulation fund business is a quasi-financial service and is also considered as one of the largest policy financial resources. However, under the institutional mechanism of compartmentalization, it is difficult to exert its maximum efficiency and function.
The decentralized system is reflected in the "multiple policies" of housing provident fund management centers around the country. Vertically, the five-level administrative agencies mainly set up housing provident fund management institutions at the municipal level, without a top-down vertical management system, lacking unified business guidance and standards, and the housing provident fund management centers in various places are fragmented.
Horizontally, because there is no common subordinate organization at the national and provincial levels, the provident fund management centers are separated from each other, the business development is uneven, the information systems are very different, and there is no effective information circulation channel.
Taking Jiangxi as an example, Ganzhou Housing Provident Fund Management Center is attached to Ganzhou Finance Bureau, while Nanchang Housing Provident Fund Management Center is a public institution directly under Nanchang Municipal Government. It is also known that in some areas, there are still some hanging in the agency affairs administration. The nature of the units is also different, some are participating units, while others are public institutions.
A major drawback of decentralized management system lies in the lack of supervision. The Measures for Administrative Supervision of Housing Provident Funds stipulates that the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Provincial Housing and Urban-Rural Development Department, together with relevant departments such as finance, the People’s Bank of China (branches) and the China Banking Regulatory Commission (dispatched offices) at the same level, are responsible for administrative supervision of the management of housing provident funds in various cities, but there is only a loose supervision relationship from top to bottom, and all regulatory departments have not formed a joint force.
The essence of the provident fund center is territorial supervision, that is, the local government is responsible for the supervision of the deposit, use and value-added income of the housing provident fund, while local governments often lack the motivation to supervise. At the same time, it also brings a problem, that is, the housing accumulation funds in various places are not mutually recognized. Some cities are short of accumulation fund resources and even have to raise funds at high interest rates, while some cities have a large amount of idle funds deposited in their accounts.
"Unfortunately, the statistics are very large, but in fact the resources we can allocate are very limited. This needs top-level design to promote. We hope that at least we can carry out vertical management by province, allocate funds and try our best to make loans. " Xiao Wen, deputy director of Jiangxi Housing Provident Fund Management Center, said.
With the impact of high housing prices, provident fund loans are "riding a tiger"
Compared with commercial loans, the interest rate of provident fund loans is lower, which is favored by most property buyers. However, due to the relatively limited amount of provident fund loans, in many cities, its housing security function has been weakened by the rising housing prices in recent years.
"My overall feeling is that the earlier it is, the more obvious the function of provident fund housing security is." Xiao Wen said. National academy of economic strategy’s research also shows that in the eastern provinces with developed economy and higher housing prices, the fairness of housing provident fund is much lower than that in the western provinces with lower housing prices.
In the context of the rapid rise in housing prices, some buyers can only take the form of combined loans even if they use provident fund loans. It takes a long time and complicated procedures to use provident fund loans; No, I didn’t enjoy the policy benefits I should have. Employees are "riding a tiger" in using provident fund loans.
In September 2016, Beijing’s real estate market was extremely hot, especially in the stock housing market. It is nothing new for house prices to rise week by week and day by day. Liu Fang, who works in Beijing, decided to change rooms in early September. In order to prevent the seller from sitting on the ground and raising prices, she first finalized a 5.6 million yuan two-bedroom apartment and paid a deposit. Soon, she sold her original house for 4 million yuan and entered the so-called "chain list".
However, in the face of the difference in the need for loans, Liu Fang did not take the provident fund loan into consideration. "Portfolio lending is too slow, like me ‘ Serial list ’ Yes, the time requirement is very strict, the seller is waiting for money, and I also hope that the buyer of my house can get the full amount in place as soon as possible, so my requirement for the buyer is also the need for commercial loans. If you want to borrow the provident fund, you have to give me a high down payment. "
A real estate agent in Beijing told a reporter who talked for half a month that in fact, most buyers want to use the provident fund, but in Beijing, the total house price is four or five million yuan, and the provident fund loan can be up to 1.2 million yuan. Many just need to pay a high down payment, and the combined loan time is as long as two and a half months or even longer. It is almost impossible to rely on all commercial loans when the house price goes up. Most buyers can only buy a house through commercial loans, and then withdraw the provident fund once every three months to repay part of the monthly payment.
Weiye I love my family Hu Jinghui, vice president of the group, said that loans are the way that most people must buy houses at present. However, in a high-priced city like Beijing, most buyers have no choice but commercial loans because of the small amount of provident fund loans.
"Reverse Subsidy" raises the question of fairness
Many studies have found that in the use of provident fund, there is such a phenomenon: most employees pay housing provident fund, while only a few people who have the ability to buy houses enjoy low-interest loans from housing provident fund.
Hu Zuquan, an associate researcher at the Macroeconomic Research Office of the Economic Forecasting Department of the State Information Center, said that many depositors may never get provident fund loans and are forced to save at a level lower than the market interest rate to provide support for families with higher incomes who can get mortgage loans. This is actually a "reverse subsidy" for low-income people to high-income people.
In addition to the unfair use, the deposit coverage rate also has a more obvious phenomenon of "polarization between the rich and the poor". The research on "Income Difference of Housing Provident Fund Deposit Coverage in 2014" conducted by China Income Distribution Research Institute shows that the lower the income level, the lower the housing provident fund coverage, and the higher the income level, the higher the coverage. The difference between the deposit coverage of low-income and high-income people is as high as nearly 50 percentage points.
An interview with a reporter for half a month found that even in the same region and the same industry, there may be huge differences in the contribution of employees’ provident fund under the premise of the same proportion and base.
An employee of a financial enterprise in Beijing told the reporter that he personally pays the provident fund of 1,900 yuan per month. The students who work with them pay the same amount of provident fund every month in a public institution in the same system. After several years, the difference between the two people’s provident fund balances is tens of thousands because the other unit also pays more than 2,000 yuan of supplementary provident fund every month.
Ms. Xiao, who works in a large private enterprise in Beijing, said that when she signed a contract with the enterprise, her salary was 20,000 yuan per month before tax, but she found that the enterprise paid the provident fund based on the basic salary of 6,000 yuan. If the provident fund is regarded as "welfare", the amount paid into the provident fund is not directly proportional to her "high salary".
"I am not bad. It is difficult for employees of many small private enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises to enjoy the protection of provident fund, which also causes unfairness within and outside the system." Ms. Xiao said.
Don’t change it! Where is the provident fund system going?
— — Road-finding provident fund: minor repairs or major changes (3)
Half-monthly talk reporter Lu Chang edifies Yu Xianhong.
The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out, "Let all the people live and live." This is the general goal of the housing policy in the new era. The government will focus on supporting low-and middle-income people and new urban residents to solve the housing problem, and these groups are the weak links covered by the provident fund. From this point of view, the reform of the provident fund system is imperative.
The reform process needs to be accelerated.
Whether the provident fund system can maintain its vitality depends on whether it can keep up with the general trend of economic and social development. Experts pointed out that under the current provident fund system, informal workers, especially migrant workers, are basically excluded from the system, which is contrary to the development requirements of the new urbanization with "people as the core".
"The vast majority of non-public enterprises have not established housing provident fund, and individual industrial and commercial households, part-time employees, other flexible employees and migrant workers have not been included in the housing provident fund system. They are the key targets to ensure that all people live and live." Hu Zuquan, an associate researcher at the Macroeconomic Research Office of the Economic Forecasting Department of the National Information Center, said.
Especially with the acceleration of urbanization, the scale of population transfer from rural areas to cities is huge. Through housing security, farmers who enter urban employment can become citizens and smoothly integrate into urban life, which not only puts forward new requirements for the provident fund system to adapt to the diversified housing needs, but also puts forward new requirements for further expanding the coverage of the provident fund, improving the investment operation mode and strengthening organizational management.
Hu Zuquan believes that only by scientifically adjusting the provident fund policy, filling the loopholes in the system, strengthening supervision, expanding coverage, standardizing operation and providing quality services can we give full play to the due role of housing provident fund policy housing finance.
In November 2015, the Regulations on the Management of Housing Provident Fund (Revised for Draft) was publicly solicited for comments, which was the first revision of the regulations after 13 years. This revision mainly focuses on the deposit, withdrawal and utilization rate of housing provident fund, enhancing the liquidity of provident fund and promoting the preservation and appreciation of provident fund. The Legislative Work Plan of the State Council in 2017 includes the revision of the Regulations on the Management of Housing Provident Fund as an urgent project to comprehensively deepen the reform this year, and it is determined that the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development will complete the drafting and revision.
"It has been two years since the revision of the housing provident fund management regulations was publicly solicited, but ‘ I only heard the sound of stairs, but no one came down ’ I hope that the revised regulations can be introduced as soon as possible. " Beijing citizen Chen Xi said.
The reform orientation is gradually clarified.
Experts believe that in the short and medium term, to improve the housing provident fund system, we should speed up the revision of the Regulations on the Management of Housing Provident Fund, and clarify its system positioning, service targets and policy objectives. "At present, China’s housing monetization reform has been basically completed. To achieve the goal of improving the housing level of urban residents, we should focus on improving the housing payment ability of low-and middle-income groups." Huang Yanfen, a professor at the School of Public Administration of Renmin University of China, said.
Huang Yanfen believes that the housing accumulation fund system should be positioned as mutual housing policy finance under the background of the basic completion of housing monetization reform and the rapid advancement of new urbanization in China. This system orientation includes three aspects: mutual assistance, policy and financial attributes. The goal is to give full play to the function of housing provident fund system to improve the living standard of urban residents, especially low-and middle-income groups.
Wang Lina, a researcher at the Institute of Economics of China Academy of Social Sciences, said that an important orientation of provident fund reform is "returning power to empower". "Repayment of rights" is to give the owners of funds their due rights, such as knowing, participating, making decisions and using rights, raising deposit interest rates and sharing value-added benefits. "Empowering" means giving the provident fund more functions. In addition to buying houses, it can be used for renting houses and other housing consumption expenses.
Wang Lina believes that the current disclosure of relevant information about provident fund is not sufficient and transparent. For example, how much of the provident fund withdrawal is housing loan, how much is retirement withdrawal and rental housing withdrawal? Is the main source of value-added income from deposit and loan interest income or other investment income? How is it distributed and used? Which cities have capital precipitation or shortage? What is the root cause? Participants in the provident fund should understand these problems.
In addition, at present, the housing provident fund is limited to the limited use direction of funds such as house purchase, self-construction, renovation and overhaul, and the withdrawal under very few specific circumstances such as retirement, loss of working ability and going abroad to settle down. The application channels are narrow and the degree of convenience needs to be improved.
The interviewed experts pointed out that China’s housing provident fund system was established by learning from the experience of Singapore and other countries, but only learned "compulsory savings" and "low deposit and low loan", and did not establish a fair loan allocation mechanism.
There are still several fundamental differences between Singapore’s current central provident fund system and China’s provident fund system: First, Singapore’s central provident fund system is more compulsory, wider in scope and higher in proportion. Second, the deposit interest rate of the Singapore Central Provident Fund account is not a low interest rate, but is determined by the average interest rate of time savings deposits of the four major banks in Singapore. Third, Singapore’s central provident fund supports housing construction by purchasing bonds, while China’s housing provident fund mainly supports housing construction by means of loans.
The insiders believe that China should learn from international experience, speed up the innovation and transformation of housing provident fund system, establish a housing provident fund model in line with China’s national conditions, improve the adjustment mechanism of flexible deposit ratio that is suitable for economic and social development and housing price level, and improve the mechanism of provident fund supporting the construction of affordable housing and diversified housing consumption demand, so as to better help solve housing problems and reflect social equity.
The reform goal still needs to be explored.
The central government has proposed to study the reform of housing provident fund system in the direction of establishing residential policy financial institutions to support residents’ demand for self-occupation. In the long run, it is in line with the reform direction of national institutions to promote the transformation of provident fund management into policy-oriented financial enterprises in a timely manner, and it is also conducive to improving the efficiency of provident fund management and improving business services.
Gao Guangchun, an associate researcher in national academy of economic strategy, believes that the Regulations on the Management of Housing Provident Fund (Revised for Draft) improves the mechanism for the withdrawal and use of housing provident fund, which indicates that the use of housing provident fund has entered the stage of paying equal attention to the withdrawal of personal housing lease and personal housing purchase loans (including loans from different places). At the same time, the key issues that may be encountered in financial and policy reforms should be considered.
Yang Yumei, a researcher at China Institute of Income Distribution, pointed out that the plan of transforming the provident fund system into a policy-oriented housing savings bank means transforming the existing housing provident fund institutions at all levels into financial institutions. Different from the existing closed provident fund system, policy-oriented financial institutions are part of the financial system, and trillions of financial assets have great responsibilities for maintaining and increasing their value and operating safely.
Wang Lina suggested that it is not necessary to set up a national housing bank to promote the transformation of provident fund management to residential policy financial institutions, but it can be a housing mutual savings bank, a housing cooperative bank, or a housing provident fund asset management company. This means that its ownership form is not necessarily wholly state-owned, except the central government, local governments, financial institutions, powerful enterprises, provident fund managers and depositors can all become shareholders, and mixed ownership is conducive to amplifying the functions of state-owned capital and stimulating the vitality of private capital.
In response to the call for the housing provident fund system to be changed from territorial management to centralized management, some grassroots people believe that the balance of housing provident fund is originally at the local level, and it is bound to harm the interests of the local authorities if it is received by the central management agency in a compulsory centralized manner. How to break the territorial management system of housing provident fund and coordinate the relationship between the central and local governments is also a major difficulty in the reform of the provident fund system.