Beijing pushes for local government stimulus

June Chen

China encouraged local governments to launch stimulus policies such as raising mortgage loan amounts to support families with kids to buy homes.

The State Council's statement said local governments could offer eligible families with children appropriate priority in the choice of house type according to the number of children.

The new move aims to ease pressures on the population and prolonged sluggish residential property market.

More than 30 cities have given housing purchase support to multi-child families, which include relaxing purchase restrictions, increasing the loan amount of housing provident fund, and giving housing purchase subsidies, Xinhua said.

At present, policy measures for multi-child families may become a new trend in property market regulation, the agency said.

Yan Yuejin, an analyst, said the preferential policy of public rental housing is the first step. The next stage is to offer housing subsidies and cancel purchase restrictions. In the future - combined with other financial policies - such families may be able to enjoy lower loan interest rates, he said.

In other news, Country Garden (2007) has settled a debt before the deadline. According to Guangdong Join-Share Financing Guarantee Investment (1543), a guarantor of the developer, Country Garden redeemed the corporate bonds early and cleared all repayment obligations, including the principal and interest last Friday.