Three departments promote the implementation of “Make loans based on housing ownership”

Recently, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the People’s Bank of China, and China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission jointly issued the Notice on Optimizing the Identification Standards for the Number of Housing Sets in Personal Housing Loans, which promotes the implementation of relative measures of the “Make loans based on housing ownership” policy. The Notice makes it clear that when a family (including the borrower, his or her spouse and underage children) applies for a loan to purchase commercial housing, if the family member does not have a complete set of local housing, regardless of whether the family had applied loans to purchase a housing, banks and financial institutions should implement housing credit policies of buying first housing. This measure is designed as a policy tool for local governments’ autonomous adoption. According to the official of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the new policy will enable more buyers to enjoy the down payment ratio and preferential interest rates of first-home loans, which will reduce the cost of housing purchases for residents and better meet rigid and improved housing needs.