Three Ministries Issue Rules Tightening Pre-Sale Requirements for Commercial Housing
Nashnova编辑部
China's housing ministry and two other agencies now require a building to be structurally topped out before presale is allowed, with local governments setting the details — tightening a system that let developers sell homes long before construction was meaningfully underway.
What does the new rule actually say?
The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, together with two other agencies, issued a notice setting a floor condition for presale — selling homes before they are finished.
The core requirement: each building must reach structural topping-out before presale can begin.
This means → developers can no longer start collecting money at the foundation-pit stage; the main structure must be complete first.
Why raise the presale bar now?
In recent years, heavily leveraged developers presold units early, then ran out of cash — leaving buyers with unfinished buildings and no recourse.
In plain terms = the old rules were too loose; developers could sell before they had built much, and buyers bore all the risk.
This reflects a regulatory shift from easy entry to strict entry, with homebuyer protection rising in priority.
How much will enforcement vary?
The notice leaves specific thresholds to local governments, meaning first- and second-tier cities may enforce far more strictly than smaller ones.
This means → cash-strapped small and mid-sized developers face the biggest hit — topping out before selling requires significantly more upfront capital.
For buyers, the odds of ending up with an unfinished home should fall, but new-home supply may slow and waiting times may lengthen.
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