BJ raises mortgage cap of public housing fund -- china.org.cn

Beijing has moved to prop up its property market. The management agency for the city's public housing fund has announced that it has raised the ceiling on mortgages to 800,000 yuan from 600,000 yuan per household.

The Beijing Public Housing Fund Management Center said the new rules will come into effect on Thursday. This followed a similar move by Shanghai last month, when local authorities lifted the mortgage limit by 20 percent to 600-thousand yuan.

Beijing's public housing fund agency just raised the maximum public housing loan to 600-thousand yuan last year.

The agency said the policy change is in line with citizen's incomes.

Li Chiying, Spokesperson of BJ Public Housing Fund MGMT. Center said "With an increase in workers' average incomes in Beijing, deposits to the public housing fund have been climbing. We made the adjustment based on a calculation of the ratio between deposits to and loans from the public housing fund, plus factors like current housing prices."

In addition, the management center said it will increase the frequency at which people can withdraw from the public housing fund from once a year to once a month.

Li Chiying said "The current withdrawal frequencies are too low. It's not convenient for people to withdraw from the public housing fund just once a year."

The center said it will put out the monthly withdrawal rules as soon as possible.

What's more, it has issued other preferential policies for homebuyers. For example, those buying price-limited housing will not be strictly limited to the 90-square-meter restriction. As long as homebuyers purchase a price-capped home not exceeding 92.7 square meters, they will still be able to apply for public housing loans with a minimum 10-percent down payment.

To encourage home purchases, Beijing's public housing authorities have lowered their five-year lending rates and rates for over five years.

As major cities continue to see sluggishness in their property markets, local authorities have all taken measures in a bid to turn around their markets.

(CCTV November 8, 2008)