Banks' property loans spike in H1 of 2013

China's property loans increased 1.3 trillion yuan ($211.6 billion) in the first half of this year, 732.6 billion yuan more than the same period last year, China's central bank said.

A People's Bank of China report on financial institutions' loans said that as of the end of June, major financial institutions, small rural financial entities and foreign-funded commercial banks provided a combined 13.56 trillion yuan in loans to property developers and homebuyers — 18.1 percent higher than a year earlier.

All loans amounted to 68.08 trillion yuan by end of June, up 14.2 percent year-on-year, and new loans in the first six months reached 5.08 trillion yuan, 27.1 percent of which went to the real estate sector.

Loans for government-subsidized housing soared 37.5 percent year-on-year to 658 billion yuan in the first half, and new loans for public housing projects was 85 billion yuan, accounting for 35.5 percent of total new yuan-denominated loans in the property sector.

More loans for land and property development reinforces evidence that a recovery is taking place in the real estate market.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics released July 18 showed that of the 70 major cities the bureau tracks on a monthly basis, 63 cities' new-home prices increased in June, five other cities saw declines, and the other two stayed unchanged.

Only Wenzhou of Zhejiang province experienced a drop in new-home price in June from the same period last year, while the 69 other cities all reported hikes.

Zhu Haibin, JPMorgan Chase & Co's chief China economist, said he expects the property market to cool down a bit in the second half because the total social financing amount will decline from more than 10 trillion yuan in the first half to less than 8 trillion yuan in the second half.

There will be no major policy change for the property market, Zhu said.