New Home Loans Reach 3.63 Trillion Yuan in First Nine Months

(Beijing) – New home loans in the first nine months reached 3.63 trillion yuan ($539 billion), accounting for 35.7% of total loans, an increase of 1.8 trillion yuan compared with the same period in 2015, according to data released by China's central bank Tuesday.

Loans granted to households increased by 4.72 trillion yuan in the first nine months, according to the People's Bank of China, and 524.7 billion yuan was issued on a short-term basis while medium- and long-term household loans rose by 4.2 trillion yuan.

In September, mortgage loans amounted to 475.9 million yuan, accounting for 39% of the total, said Ruan Jianhong, head of the Financial Survey and Statistics Department at the central bank in a news conference Tuesday.

Ruan said home loans increased in the first nine months of 2016 because some first- and second-tier cities saw a brisk uptick in housing market activity. She also added that due to increased efforts by local governments to dispose of non-performing loans, the drop in corporate loans contributed to a larger proportion of mortgage loans.

In the first half of 2016, new home loans were 2.36 trillion yuan, accounting for 31.34% of the total new loans, according to previous data released by Chinese financial information provider Wind.

Contact reporter Dong Tongjian (tongjiandong@caixin.com); editor Kerry Nelson (kerry@caixin.com)