People's Bank of China and China Banking Regulatory Commission, Circular on Further Duly Carrying out Residential Financing Service Work

Issued: September 29 2014

Main contents: For a household purchasing its first unit of own-use ordinary residential premises with a loan, the minimum down payment rate shall be 30%, with the lower limit on the loan interest rate being 0.7 times the benchmark loan interest rate. Where a household that owns one unit of residential premises and has repaid the housing loan in full applies for another loan to purchase ordinary commercially developed residential premises in order to improve its living conditions, the bank shall implement the policy for loans for the first unit of residential premises.

In cities where “purchase restriction” measures have been cancelled or were never implemented, if a household that owns at least two units of residential premises and has repaid in full the housing loans again applies for a loan to purchase residential premises, the banking financial institution shall prudently grasp the matter and specifically determine the down payment ratio and loan interest level based on the borrower's repayment capacity, credit rating and other such factors (Article 2).