Property construction still rising - but so is caution

"Financing difficulty is more obvious with smaller developers. Bank loans are more difficult to get, and more expensive non-bank credit channels appear to be growing in popularity among our surveyed companies," said Green.

Apartment sales are showing signs of mild weakening. Nearly half of the respondents believed peers' sales had deteriorated or remained low in the previous three months, the highest proportion since the bank's second quarter 2012 survey. Their own sales had also lost some momentum.

While 13 developers reported flat sales over the previous three months, 11 had experienced deterioration.

This slowdown is in line with official statistics; nationwide growth in floor space sold moderated to 14 percent year-on-year in the second half of 2013 from 31.8 percent year-on-year in the first half of last year. And sales momentum weakened in both the primary and secondary markets.

Developers are slightly less optimistic about the sales outlook than they were a year ago. A total of 17 expect better sales in 2014 than in 2013, compared with 21 in late 2012. Eleven are looking for a flat performance.

Meanwhile, developers have become more cautious on policy. November's Third Plenum document called for land reform and the legislation of a property tax, which most respondents said they thought would be good for the long-term development of the market.

However, price rises appear to be making them cautious about the policy outlook. A total of 12 of them now expect China's new leadership to tighten real-estate policies in 2014, up from seven in the previous survey. And 14 respondents expect basically no change.

The respondents expect financing to be the main channel for such tightening - concentrated mainly on project and mortgage loans.