Chinese banks to offer discounted rates: poll

[BEIJING] Chinese banks will probably offer discounted mortgage rates to their clients in the second half of this year as demand in the country's housing market weakens, according to a Bloomberg News survey.

Banks will resume preferential mortgage rates, according to 74 per cent of analysts and economists in a survey conducted from last Monday to Thursday. Some 56 per cent forecast banks will lower minimum down payments, while 59 per cent said that they expected the central bank to ease its mortgage restrictions. A total of 29 economists and analysts responded to the survey.

New home sales slumped 9.2 per cent in the first half of the year from a year earlier amid tighter credit, forcing developers including China Vanke Co to cut prices since March. The central bank in May called on the nation's biggest lenders to accelerate the granting of mortgages, a sign that developers' price cuts and incentives alone won't boost a slumping market and economy.