BEIJING – China will almost double credit available for unfinished housing projects to four trillion yuan (S$737 billion) and help renovate a million homes as it unveiled another round of measures to shore up the sector and try to reignite the economy.
The real estate sector has long accounted for around a quarter of gross domestic product and experienced dazzling growth for two decades, but a years-long housing slump has battered growth as the authorities eye a target of around 5 per cent for 2024.
At a briefing on Oct 17, Housing Minister Ni Hong offered fresh help, saying Beijing will “increase the credit scale of white-list projects to four trillion” yuan by the end of the year, from about 2.23 trillion yuan already deployed.
The “white list” scheme, announced earlier in 2024, pushes local authorities to recommend housing projects for financial support, and work with banks to ensure their completion.
“The urban real estate financing coordination mechanism should strive to include all eligible real estate projects in the white list,” Mr Ni said.
“An additional one million worn-out homes… will be renovated. There are many safety hazards and poor living environments in urban villages, and people are eager to renovate.”
The move, he said, would “be conducive to absorbing the existing stock of commercial housing”.
China’s leadership in September warned that the economy was being plagued by “new problems” as officials unveiled a raft of stimulus measures in one of the biggest drives to boost growth for years.
Among the measures were a string of interest rate cuts, the loosening of restrictions on home buying, and moves to free up cash for banks to lend more.
Investors ‘not thrilled’
On Oct 17, Beijing said it estimated that “existing mortgage rates will fall by an average of