The residential housing market in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, is showing renewed momentum after China's central bank cut interest rates on personal housing provident fund loans, sparking a surge in buyer interest during the first weekend following the announcement.
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) announced on Wednesday that it would lower the interest rates on personal housing provident fund loans by 0.25 percentage points starting Thursday.
The interest rates on personal housing provident fund loans with maturities of five years or less and those with maturities above five years will be adjusted to 2.1 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively, for first-home buyers, and to no lower than 2.525 percent and 3.075 percent, respectively, for second-home buyers, the PBOC said in a statement.
The rate cut has ignited interest in home purchases, with the sales office of a new residential complex in Shenzhen seeing a steady increase in foot traffic.
"I'm looking for a comfortable home with an open view. I heard the interest rates on housing provident fund loans have been adjusted, so I came to see how much more favorable they are compared to before," said Mr. Wang, a potential home buyer.
Sales agents say the new policy could allow families with two children in Shenzhen to save up to 99,400 yuan (about 13,700 U.S. dollars) in interest on their first home. Such significant savings have quickly fueled buying interest, with many new units being snapped up within a few days following the announcement.
"Over the past three days, we've seen a noticeable increase in the number of home viewings," said Miao Zhixing, a residential complex project sales manager.
"The overall transaction volume will definitely go up, as the new policy will encourage some potential buyers to make a purchase, and we've noticed that clients are more enthusiastic about viewing properties than before," said Wu Honghua, a sales manager at a property company.
Shenzhen's housing market heats up after mortgage rate cut
The Sanya branch of the Peking University (PKU) Hospital of Stomatology based in the tourist resort city of Sanya in south China's tropical Hainan Province -- the country's first national-level regional dental specialty center -- officially opened on Saturday, providing local residents and tourists with access to top-tier dental care without leaving Hainan.
As a key city in the Hainan Free Trade Port and a hub for both tourism and wellness, Sanya has seen rising demand for oral healthcare. Local resources, however, have long been strained.
The newly launched hospital aims to ease the situation. Both its management and medical teams come directly from the main campus of the PKU Hospita of Stomatology in Beijing, ensuring seamless integration and unified standards across diagnoses, treatment, and service quality. The facility comprises of nine specialized buildings, including an emergency outpatient complex and an international medical services building, covering all sub-specialties in dental medicine.
"Since the official start of Hainan Free Trade Port's island-wide special customs operations [on December 18, 2025], the very first zero-tariff items entering the region were advanced dental equipment for our hospital. This enables a wide range of patients in the Hainan region to access the world's latest dental treatment equipment and technology more quickly," said Deng Xuliang, president of the PKU Hospital of Stomatology.
Looking ahead, the main campus of the PKU Hospital of Stomatology will collaborate with medical universities in Hainan to jointly train more specialized professionals for grassroots-level healthcare institutions across the region. Through technical mentorship and integrated training programs, the initiative aims to leverage the policy advantages of the free trade port to build a high-level, comprehensive platform that integrates medical services, education, research, public health, and healthcare management, with particular attention on international patient services and comfort-focused treatment.
"The operation of medical care plus health and wellness programs and of medical care plus tourism projects has jointly contributed to the formation of an internationalized medical care platform in Sanya, which presents a major opportunity for both Sanya and the rest of Hainan, especially as the free trade port enters full operation, making more duty-free medicines and medical devices available locally," said Hu Yulei, director of the Sanya Municipal Health Commission.
Hainan's Sanya opens first national dental specialty center
