The concessions I wrote about back in May are actually in effect now. Fifty percent land tax cut, foreign surcharge exemption, all live as of this month for eligible build-to-rent projects.
Policy changing on paper is the easy part. Whether it actually changes anything on the ground, whether capital moves, whether cranes go up, whether completed units eventually hit the rental market, takes years to know. Development timelines don't respond to a tax change on July 1 by delivering apartments in August.
I'm filing this one away and planning to check back on it properly in two or three years. That's roughly the timeline these things need before you can honestly say whether the incentive worked or just subsidized projects that would have happened anyway.
Patience is the only honest response to policy news like this.