After the “Detailed Rules for the Implementation of Withdrawing Housing Provident Fund to Pay the Down Payment for Purchasing Second-hand Housing in Ningbo (Trial)” was officially put into practice on March 28, 2025, this favorable policy, focusing on “family mutual assistance, process efficiency improvement, and risk control”, has injected new energy into hundreds of families’ house purchase plans, effectively alleviating the house purchase pressure on the families of provident fund contributors, and has become an important driver to activate the second-hand housing market and help to achieve “the dream that every citizen would have his own house”.
As the housing provident fund are allowed to be withdrawn to make payment as down payment, there would be no entry barrier for purchasing house.
According to the feedback from real estate agencies, they were consulted by a lot more potential customers right after the new policy was released. Many home buyers put “down payment for second-hand housing would be paid directly from provident fund” on their priority. Especially for young first-time home buyers, their home purchase plans used to put on hold due to insufficient fund have been restarted. Up till April 28, Ningbo Housing Provident Fund Management Center has received 147 applications for direct payment of down payment for second-hand housing from provident fund, whose total amount of have reached 31.64 million yuan. Among them, 110 applications have been successfully processed, with a total amount of 23.76 million yuan. Please find the following citizen’s comment, “The 'sleeping funds' in the provident fund account have been revitalized, and the pressure to raise the down payment has been directly halved!”
More citizens prefer the family mutual assistance model according to the new policy.
The new policy allows the sharing of “family housing provident fund pool”, enabling home buyers to withdraw the balance from their own and their spouse’s, parents’, and children’s provident fund accounts to directly pay the down payment for second-hand houses, forming a “family mutual aid” model. This not only reduces individual financial pressure but also strengthens the mutual assistance ties among family members. According to statistics, about 40% of the application cases withdrew provident funds from parents or children, including typical cases as “parents support the down payment as their children have just started working”. A father who went through the withdrawal said, “Using the provident fund to help my child settle down is both reasonable and reassuring, and it's much less stressful than borrowing money from others!”
The optimized process plus risk control is more effective .
On the first day of the new policy's implementation, Mr. Wei, the buyer, and Mr. Zhu, the seller, took relevant materials to the local provident fund center to submit the application. It turned out that Mr. Wei met the withdrawal requirements after review, so the staff blocked his accounts after giving him a piece of “Reception Receipt” on the spot. It only took them 15 minutes to go through the entire process.
Two innovative measures were introduced by Ningbo Provident Fund Management Center to ensure the smooth implementation of the new policy.
Firstly, to optimize the application process. The applicant and the seller should jointly submit the materials on site. After approval, the applicant's account would be blocked. Only when the property transfer registration is completed, the funds would be transferred to the seller’s account directly, working as “one-stop” service.
Secondly, to promote risk control. Through a closed-loop management of “application and blocking the account, property transfer verification, fund transfer”, the risk of fund misappropriation would be avoided. Moreover, assuring mechanism such as a one-month application validity period and strict checks for false transactions and so on have been implemented to ensure the safe and compliant use of provident funds.
The new policy measures support the upgrading of housing consumption by “full coverage”.
The new provident fund policy of direct payment for the down payment of second-hand houses works with the “provident fund direct payment for the down payment of new commercial houses” and “provident fund direct payment for the down payment of affordable housing” policies implemented since Oct. 2024, forming a complementary support network covering all types of housing purchase, including “new houses, second-hand houses and affordable housings”. At present, the use of provident fund in Ningbo have extended to new houses, second-hand houses, affordable housing, elevator installation, and elevator renewal, truly achieving “one provident fund with multiple uses benefits the contributors”.
The new policy measures provide “full-cycle support” the upgrading of housing consumption. After handling the business of direct payment of the down payment for second-hand houses from the housing provident fund, the provident fund balance in the employee's account that has been withdrawn within the six months prior to the application date for the loan (including the current month) can still be combined with the current balance to apply for a provident fund loan. Under this policy, some house buyers would bear “zero cash pressure” to purchase a house through the combination of “800,000 yuan direct payment for the down payment + 1.3 million yuan provident fund loan”. In addition, the remaining balance in the account can also used to apply for the monthly entrusted withdrawal business to reduce the monthly repayment pressure, providing full-cycle support for home buyers.
Ningbo Housing Provident Fund Management Center will further continue to fulfill the policy, keep more citizens well informed of the new policy, and dynamically optimize the service process to enable more contributors to enjoy the policy benefits. Just as CCTV reported, “This new policy is not only a breakthrough in financial support, but also a vivid demonstration of the city's warmth and concern for people's livelihood.”