Major Chinese cities optimize home-buying policies

BEIJING, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- Major Chinese cities of Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen have adjusted their real estate policies, with a slew of measures unveiled to boost local property markets.

The city of Guangzhou in south China's Guangdong Province has lifted restrictions on buying properties, a new step for the first-tier city to further optimize its real estate market.

Starting on Monday, qualifications for purchasing a home will no longer be reviewed and there will be no restrictions on the number of homes purchased by families and single individuals with or without local household registration in the city, according to a circular issued by the general office of the municipal government on Sunday night.

In Shanghai, the minimum down payment ratio for individual commercial mortgages will be reduced from 20 percent to 15 percent for first-home purchases, and from 35 percent to 25 percent for second homes, according to a circular issued Sunday.

Commercial banks will be guided to lower existing mortgage rates to further reduce mortgage interest expenditures for home buyers. Restrictions on home-buying qualifications will be further relaxed in specific locations of Shanghai. The new measures will take effect on Tuesday.

Also on Sunday, the city of Shenzhen in Guangdong Province announced measures such as reducing the down payment ratio and optimizing district-specific home purchase restrictions.

The latest measures follow a Thursday meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, which underlined the need for efforts to reverse the real estate market downturn and stabilize the market.