Shanghai Daily news

The central government's tighter curbs on mortgage lending has not soaked up the enthusiasm of domestic residents to buy property as the recent policy changes are too mild, said an analyst.
In a Chinese central bank survey recently, about 22 percent of the 20,000 respondents said they have plans to buy houses or apartments in the following three months, a quarterly rise of 0.8 percentage point.
"There are certain residents who regard buying houses as an investment vehicle despite their wishes to improve their living standard," said the report by the People's Bank of China.
Of the total, 14.4 percent of respondents in the central bank survey said they have borrowed  loans from banks to buy property, a rise of 0.2 percentage point from a year earlier.
"Most of their loans are housing loans," the report said. "Though the increase in interest rate has added repayment pressure on the borrowers, their enthusiasm will not be dampened due to the faster growth in housing prices."
The central bank raised the guiding interest rate for mortgage loans of more than five years to 6.12 percent from 5.31 percent last Wednesday, following a 27-basis-point hike from 5.04 percent to 5.31 percent last October.
The central bank conducted the survey in 50 cities, including Shanghai, Beijing and Hangzhou, late last month.
Analysts also said that the central bank's policy to allow banks to decide for themselves if they should increase the down payment amount of mortgage loans may not work well.
The central bank has asked banks to raise the down payment rate in cities where property prices increase too rapidly.
Bank of Shanghai has become the first lender in Shanghai to offer mortgage loan interest rates for their different clients.
For buyers who apply for mortgage loans up to 60 percent of the home value, Bank of Shanghai will provide the minimum interest rate of 5.51 percent on five year-plus loans. For other mortgage loan applicants, the bank will charge the official guiding rate of 6.12 percent.
The central bank urged lenders to speed up plans to adopt market-oriented interest rates, central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said. Commercial banks should base the rates they charge on perceived risk, Zhou told an economic forum in Beijing yesterday.