Suzhou shakes up residency rules

The city of Suzhou in East China's Jiangsu province has announced the scrapping of all restrictions on homebuying from Sunday.

No qualifications will be required for buying a residential property in Suzhou, and non-local people who have obtained residential properties legally for living can apply for permanent resident status in the city, according to the 16-item measures notification published on the official WeChat account of the Suzhou government on Sunday.

Taking immediate effect, the policies seek to further strengthen the stable and healthy development of the local property market by offering diversified high quality residential properties, and promoting the real estate sector's healthy development with optimized services, as well as meeting rational home living requirements by lowering costs, the notice said.

With the implementation of these policies, it is hoped to create a new model of property development at an accelerated pace, and to further meet people's inelastic and diversified home living requirements, it added.