China’s housing minister pledged on Thursday to keep the real estate market stable this year and ensure genuine demand for homes is met.
His comments followed a series of regulations aimed at reining in debt in the sector unsettled buyers and prompted a marked slowdown in the key property sector.
Prices of homes fell and new construction starts tumbled after regulators stepped up their deleveraging campaign against the bloated property sector.
That triggered defaults at some heavily indebted companies and threatening the delivery of some new residential projects.
Authorities have since stepped in with a slew of measures to boost sales and sentiment, including requiring smaller down-payments for first-time home buyers and allowing commercial banks to lower mortgage rates.
China’s genuine demand for housing is relatively strong,” Wang Menghui, head of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said at a news conference.
China will maintain the continuity and stability of policy measures while strengthening the precision and coordination of such measures,” Wang said.
The government will continue to eliminate any project delivery risks by some individual property developers due to their debt defaults, housing vice-minister Ni Hong said at the same news conference.
- Reuters with additional editing by Sean OMeara
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