Central bank says housing credit policy unchanged

BEIJING -- The People's Bank of China (PBOC), China's central bank, said on Wednesday it has stuck to its housing credit policy after reports that some banks have tightened lending for home purchases.

The central bank has continued to implement a differentiated policy, and seeks to satisfy the needs of first-time buyers, a PBOC spokesman said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the central bank has continued to beef up financial support for the construction of affordable housing and small-to-medium commercial housing units. "The orientation of this policy has not changed," the spokesman said.

Under the differentiated credit policy for home purchases, people who buy their first home are required to provide a 30 percent down payment. For those who buy a second home, the down payment can reach 70 percent, and the lending rate will also be higher.

PBOC data showed that banks' outstanding loans for housing purchases stood at 8.7 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion) as of the end of September, up 20.9 percent year on year. In the first three quarters, banks' new loans for home purchases reached 1.25 trillion yuan, accounting for 17.2 percent of new loans during the same period.

Meanwhile, 76.5 percent of the new loans were extended to first-time buyers during the period, the data showed.

The PBOC spokesman added that currently liquidity in the banking sector is abundant and commercial banks have not rolled out policies to suspend lending to home buyers.