Before buying an unfinished home, check its presale permit; pay the deposit, down payment and mortgage only into the presale-funds supervision account named in the contract

No charge. It takes a few minutes to check the permit before signing and match the account before paying. The difficult part is refusing when a salesperson asks you to transfer elsewhere.

An off-plan home is called a commercial-housing pre-sale in the regulations — the developer selling you a home that is still being built. In August (8) 2026 the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Natural Resources, and the National Financial Regulatory Administration issued a document: “The down payment, the personal housing loan, and other purchase funds paid by the buyer shall all be deposited into the funds supervision account.” Supervision is lifted only after the home has passed completion inspection and water, electricity, gas, and heat are ready for handover. The developer must write into the purchase contract the rights and duties of depositing the purchase funds into the supervision account. If the developer is in breach and cannot hand the home over on time, you may end the contract as the contract provides. The developer must return the money as the contract says and bear liability for the breach. The People’s Bank of China and the National Financial Regulatory Administration at the same time provided that a personal housing loan for a pre-sale home is paid by the bank directly into the project’s pre-sale funds supervision account. A 2022 document from three departments already stated that earnest money, the down payment, and the mortgage loan “shall all be deposited directly into the supervision account.” A project that has not received a pre-sale permit must not be pre-sold, and the developer must not take earnest money by subscription, reservation, queue numbers, or VIP cards. A pre-sale contract signed without a pre-sale permit is held invalid by the court. If the permit is obtained before the suit is filed, it may be held valid. Money paid somewhere other than the supervision account is outside this supervision. The same 2026 document also provides that for a project sold as a finished home, after the construction permit is obtained the developer may first take a “small amount of earnest money.” That earnest money is supervised by the housing-funds supervision body, held in an “earnest-money supervision account” opened at the project’s lead bank, and supervision is lifted only when the home is ready for handover.

住房城乡建设部、自然资源部、金融监管总局 (2026). 关于完善商品住房销售制度的通知（建房规〔2026〕3 号，第一部分第（二）（三）项，第二部分第（三）项）. https://www.gov.cn/gongbao/2026/issue_13026/202610/content_7082773.html；中国人民银行、金融监管总局 (2026). 关于改革完善房地产信贷管理推动加快构建房地产发展新模式的意见（银发〔2026〕171 号，第二十二条）. https://www.gov.cn/gongbao/2026/issue_13026/202610/content_7082770.html；银保监会办公厅、住房城乡建设部办公厅、人民银行办公厅 (2022). 关于商业银行出具保函置换预售监管资金有关工作的通知（银保监办发〔2022〕104 号，第二条）. https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2022-11/14/content_5726954.htm；住房城乡建设部 (2010). 关于进一步加强房地产市场监管完善商品住房预售制度有关问题的通知（建房〔2010〕53 号，第一部分第（一）项，第二部分第（九）项）. http://www.gov.cn/gongbao/content/2010/content_1629136.htm；最高人民法院 (2020 修正). 关于审理商品房买卖合同纠纷案件适用法律若干问题的解释（法释〔2020〕17 号修正后文本，第二条）. https://www.court.gov.cn/fabu/xiangqing/282621.html

For a project that had already received its construction-project planning permit before 28 August (8) 2026, the pre-sale conditions and the funds supervision follow each place’s old rules. That the down payment and the loan go into the supervision account was already required by the 2010 and 2022 documents. For a project sold as a finished home where the developer takes a small amount of earnest money while still building, the new rules require the earnest money to go into an earnest-money supervision account. The account name and number of the supervision account are whatever the purchase contract writes; check them once before you pay. If the contract is held invalid and the developer still does not return the money, you have to sue. Ordinary first-instance procedure must be concluded within 6 months under the rules, with extensions permitted. Lawyer fees are generally yours. How the price of a second-hand home is paid is in item 7 (the dedicated transaction-funds deposit account).