降低最低首付 (jiàngdī zuìdī shoufù): Lower minimum down payments

On Tuesday, the Central Bank and China Bank Regulatory Commission jointly announced an adjustment to the policy on housing loans for individuals.

According to the announcement, in cities without house-purchase restrictions, the minimum down payment for first-time home buyers borrowing from commercial banks will be lowered from 30 percent to 25 percent, and local governments are allowed to further lower housing loan down payments to 20 percent.

As the housing market in most non-first-tier cities in China began to take a downturn in 2014, China's housing market faces a huge surplus of unsold homes, a decline in both sales and prices and slowing investment.

Statistics show that the overall area of unsold homes nationwide had been accumulated to 696 million square meters at the end of November, 2015. Thus the adjustment is regarded as the first policy aimed at destocking the housing market nationwide.

The adjustment will reduce buyers' financial burden in most cities except Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Sanya. And experts expect more favorable policies will be introduced in the following days, which may help the recovery of the housing market.