Banking regulator assures prudential realty finance

With focus on "the prudential management system of real estate finance", China will adhere to the principle of "housing is for living in, not for speculation" and insist on not using real estate as a short-term means to stimulate the economy, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission said on Thursday.

"The CBIRC will continuously implement the long-term mechanism to maintain the sound development of the real estate market, guide banking and insurance institutions to accurately comprehend and implement the prudential management system of real estate finance, and maintain the continuity and stability of real estate finance regulatory policies," said Liu Zhongrui, deputy director of the statistics, IT and risk surveillance department of China's top banking and insurance regulator.

Based on the market-oriented principle and the rule of law, the regulator will cooperate with relevant government departments and local governments to jointly maintain the steady and sound development of the real estate market as well as protect legal rights and interests of homebuyers, Liu said at a news conference held by the State Council Information Office.

Addressing foreign investors' concerns about the debt-laden property developer China Evergrande Group, he emphasized that the crisis is an individual case in China's real estate sector. Evergrande's woes signify the problem of an individual company, he said.

"Based on our judgment, the Evergrande's debt problem will not have a huge impact on China's real estate sector or greatly affect the reputation of Chinese companies in general. The reputation of Chinese companies lies in the country's stable and improved economy, which has laid the foundation for Chinese enterprises' credibility and for the long-term steady development of real estate companies," he said.

The overall risk associated with Evergrande is controllable, and relevant government departments and local governments are pushing ahead with risk disposal in accordance with laws and regulations, Liu said.

"Financial liabilities accounted for less than one-third of Evergrande's total liabilities. Generally speaking, banks' exposure to the group is not huge. Besides, its debt is scattered among various banks, so an individual bank's exposure to Evergrande is not huge either," Liu said.

Wang Zhaodi, chief examination officer and spokesman of the CBIRC, said:"We firmly implemented China's real estate regulation policies, which abide by the principle of housing is for living in, not for speculation."

The regulator steadily improved the country's credit structure in the first nine months of this year.

As of the end of September, the growth of real estate loans slowed to 8.6 percent year-on-year, nearly 3 percentage points lower than the growth of total loans.

At the same time, the country saw its loans to the manufacturing sector increase by 12.6 percent year-on-year; its loans to small and micro enterprises, whose total credit lines are up to 10 million yuan ($1.56 million) per borrower, surged by 25.2 percent, Wang said.

New yuan loans reached 16.7 trillion yuan in the first nine months, up 462.4 billion yuan from the same period of last year, he said.