More Cities Relax Housing Policies To Stimulate Demand: Times

The scope of China's effort to bail out the property market has expanded with 14 more cities having loosened their housing policies in April, mainly by relaxing restrictions on purchase, loan and sales as well as lowering down payment ratio and mortgage interest rates, the Securities Times reported. Cities including some housing hotspots like Nanjing started to relax and stimulate demand, and this could be followed by more second-tier big cities with greater downward pressure, the newspaper said citing Ding Zuyu, executive director of Shanghai E-House Real Estate Research Institute. The market rebound in bigger cities will gradually transmit to third- and fourth-tier cities, said Ding. More than 60 cities have issued more than 100 real estate-related policies to prop up the market in Q1, the newspaper added.