China announced on Monday it had slashed a key reference rate for mortgage loans by a quarter of a percentage point, as the country stepped up efforts to stabilise the property market.
The benchmark five-year loan prime rate (LPR) was lowered from 3.85 per cent to 3.6 per cent, while the one-year lending rate was also cut from 3.35 per cent to 3.1 per cent, according to the People’s Bank of China.
For Chinese households with mortgage loans of 1 million yuan (US$140,000), the monthly instalment payment would be reduced by around 141.5 yuan (US$19.9) after the cut to the five-year LPR, according to calculations by Chinese media.
The move came as Beijing has taken an all-out effort to drive up the struggling property market.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, the housing ministry said it would double the credit to white list property projects to 4 trillion yuan by the end of the year and renovate 1 million units in urban villages.
More to follow …
