China to refine city-specific real-estate market policies

BEIJING -- China's financial departments will work to improve city-specific policies in the real estate market.

The supply and demand relationship in the real estate market has undergone profound changes, so there is room to improve the policies introduced during the overheated stage of the market, said Zou Lan, head of the monetary policy department of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), at a press conference Friday.

The overall property market has been running steadily since the beginning of the year, but it still takes time for persistent risks in certain property firms to fade away, he said.

Credit data from the central bank mirrored improvement in the property market. The banks lent 3.5 trillion yuan ($490.96 billion) of mortgages from January to June, an increase of 510 billion yuan year-on-year, while the cumulative new loans for property development hit 420 billion yuan, an increase of 200 billion yuan year-on-year.

On Monday, China announced to extend two financial policies supporting the stable and healthy development of the real estate market to the end of 2024, involving a 16-step guideline rolled out last November.

The move aims to guide financial institutions to continue deferring loan payments for real estate enterprises while propping up financial support for real estate enterprises to ensure the delivery of housing projects.