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A national housing bank could offer low interest
rate housing loans to help middle and low income home buyers,
bolstering demand in a sluggish real estate market, and reducing
risks for commercial banks, the official said in the article
cited by Xinhua News Agency on Monday.
Zhang Qiguang, head of the Ministry's housing provident fund
supervision department, also proposed the housing fund include
rural workers who seek jobs in urban areas and offer government
support to help them buy homes, Xinhua said.
Just a week ago, China offered tax breaks to home buyers and
reduced down payment requirements for the second time in six
months, in a bid to halt a slide in house prices that is
threatening to undermine the world's second-biggest economy.
The housing market is worth the equivalent of around 15 percent
of China's economy, and its sluggish performance has held back
economic growth and subdued activity in an array of sectors from
cement to steel to glass making. Prices fell at a record annual
pace in February.
Housing provident funds are a compulsory savings program to
which all Chinese workers and their employers must contribute.
Employees can draw on the account when they purchase a house and
may be granted preferential mortgage rates.
(Reporting by Chen Aizhu; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
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