China Expands Housing Project Financing with $562 Billion Bank Lending

Minister Ni Hong announced that China will enlarge the list of housing projects approved for financing and boost bank loans up to 4 trillion yuan. Ni announced at a press conference that monetisation measures will be implemented for urbanisation projects, with a million villages being part of these plans.

The promises to provide additional funding for struggling developers and city projects are included in a set of actions unveiled recently to help stabilize the sector, which experienced a crisis in 2021 that had a negative impact on overall growth in the second-largest global economy.

"It can be said that the bottoming out of the property market has begun," Ni told sources.

In January, China introduced a scheme for a "white list" of projects eligible for funding to guarantee that developers could finish construction and hand over homes to purchasers. By the close of the third quarter, banks had given the green light to 5,392 projects, with funding totaling almost 1.4 trillion yuan.

Xiao Yuanqi, deputy director of the State Financial Regulatory Administration, reported at the press conference that the amount of approved loans for projects on the "white list" had increased to 2.23 trillion yuan by Oct 16.

Officials from the finance ministry additionally revealed steps to support the real estate industry, permitting local governments to utilize special bond funds to purchase unsold properties and unused land.