Since the central bank lowered the down payment required for second homes on March 30, only one bank in Shenzhen has so far implemented the new policy as industry insiders say the regulation is hard to be carried out in the city where housing demand remains high.

China Minsheng Bank cut the down payment rate for second homes to 40 percent in accordance with the new policy, while other lenders have retained the previous minimum rate at 60 percent.

The reduction in down payment has ignited Shenzhen's second-hand property market, with the number of buyers having risen considerably amid the latest directive from the People's Bank of China (PBOC).

"Many sellers and buyers signed contracts on March 30 after the central bank made the announcement. Our employees had to work till midnight," a real-estate agent surnamed Yin told China Daily.

Some sellers have raised their prices for second-hand properties by an average of 100,000 yuan ($16,110), while prices of bigger apartments have gone up by 300,000 yuan.

Between March 30 and April 5, a total of 1,907 second-hand units were sold in Shenzhen - a 6-percent increase from the previous week - with average prices rising by 6.6 percent to 36,473 yuan per square meter, according to the Shenzhen Centaline Research Center.

The lowering of the down-payment threshold and transaction costs has propelled real-estate prices, Centaline said in its latest report. The high trend of second-hand transactions is expected to continue this month, it said.

On the other hand, the market for new properties in Shenzhen has been less thriving, with only 891 transactions recorded in the past week - down 11 percent from the previous week. Prices of new apartments fell by 3.5 percent to 26,634 yuan per square meter.

A banking industry source explained that the cut in the down-payment rate for second homes may be hard to implement, given that Shenzhen's housing demand is still high.

"The new policy will not have much of an impact on the interest rate for loans taken out on first homes either," he said.

Property loan analyst Li Li said:" Among the four first-tier mainland cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen - only Beijing has implemented the new policy. It will take some time, probably a month or so, for the new policy to be comprehensively enforced."

The central bank's latest policy marks a new attempt by the government to revive the mainland's sluggish property market.

sally@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 04/10/2015 page1)