Several cities in Hubei province have seen rates for first home loans drop beneath the 4% threshold, as Chinese regulators push to reduce borrowing costs and keep the beleaguered property market in fine fettle.
Cailianshe reports that minimum first home loan rates offered by banks in the Hubei province cities of Wuhan, Yichang and Xiangyang have fallen from 4.1% to 3.9%.
The declines come after the Chinese central bank and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) issued a notice just prior to the October national holiday calling for Chinese cities to reduce first home loan rates if they satisfied certain conditions.
According to the Notice issued on 29 September, these conditions included successive declines in sales prices for new commercial homes in both month-on-month and year-on-year terms during the period from June to August.
At least 23 out of 70 medium and large-scale cities in China currently satisfy these conditions, including Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, Dalian, Harbin, Wuhan and Wenzhou.
The Shandong province of Jining also satisfies these conditions, and has reduced the minimum rate for first home loans from 4.1% to 3.95%.
