The headquarters of the People's Bank of China in Beijing Photo: IC

 
The headquarters of the People's Bank of China in Beijing Photo: IC The People's Bank of China (PBC), the central bank, has held a meeting attended by major commercial banks and 12 Chinese property enterprises, and it signals regulatory easing for mergers, China Securities Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Twelve Chinese property enterprise including Shimao Group, Evergrande Group, Zhongliang Holding Group, Kaisa Group, Sunac China Holdings and Greenland Holdings, attended the meeting.

The meeting pointed to easing in terms of regulatory compliance for mergers that involve projects with incomplete licenses.

The measures are expected to include allowing enterprises to extend overdue loans after credit enhancement and asking banks to fully support commercial real estate loans.

The relaxed merger rules could facilitate some deals, Yan Yuejin, research director at Shanghai-based E-house China Research Institute, told the Global Times on Monday.

"The extension of overdue loans could help projects in obtaining funding, prevent the project from being unfinished, and ensure that projects have better delivery capacity," Yan said. The meeting comes after Chinese authorities announced a series of easing policies to support the slug-gish property market.

On April 18, the PBC and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange issued a notice emphasizing the need for financial support for the real estate industry, including implementing differentiated housing credit policies based on the situation in different places and setting reasonable minimum down payments for commercial individual housing loans to better meet the demand from house buyers.

On April 22, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBRC) stressed that it will continue to improve the long-term mechanism of "stabilizing land prices, housing prices and market expectations." It also said it would support demand for housing and promote the virtuous and healthy development of the real estate industry.

More than 80 cities have eased curbs on home purchases this year to support the ailing property market. In March, Chinese land sales revenue fell 22.84 percent from a year earlier to 403.6 billion yuan, after a 29.5 percent plunge in the first two months.

Global Times