China's Tianjin Eased Residential Permit Rules As Property Market Slows

China's northern city of Tianjin has sharply cut the time needed for non-local elderly people to become registered residents, in a move that will boost the number of people qualified to buy homes and could shore up a slowing local property market. Elderly people whose children have properties in the city can now get their household registration permits within six months of application instead of three years, according to a notice published on the website of the local government recently. Dwellers with household registration permits in the city currently are allowed to buy up to two homes, while those without permits can buy only one. Tianjin, which shares a border with the capital city Beijing, has been hit by a slowdown in its property market. New home prices in September fell for the first time since October last year. China's property market has significantly slowed since May, with sentiment shaken by signs of stress in the sector, including a widening liquidity crisis that has engulfed some of the country's biggest and most indebted developers. Last month, Harbin, the capital of north-eastern Heilongjiang province, became one of the first cities to announce measures to support property developers and their projects to stave off a local real estate crisis. Provincial and local leaders were excited, including then-premier Stephen McNeil and Halifax Mayor Mike Savage. Nearly 300 people – touring DDI executives, politicians, business leaders and more – attended a splashy launch in Halifax in 2014. The DDI saga in Nova Scotia, with the grand promises the company made and then failed to fulfill, was an early warning sign for the problems now facing other large Chinese real estate companies and their holdings around the world.