BEIJING (Reuters) -China's housing minister pledged on Thursday to keep the real estate market stable this year and ensure genuine demand for homes is met, after a series of regulations aimed at reining in debt in the sector unsettled buyers and prompted a marked slowdown in the key property sector.
Prices of homes fell and new construction starts tumbled after regulators stepped up their deleveraging campaign against the bloated property sector, triggering defaults at some heavily indebted companies and threatening the delivery of some new residential housing projects.
Authorities have since stepped in with a slew of measures to boost sales and sentiment, including requiring smaller down-payments for first-time home buyers and allowing commercial banks to lower mortgage rates.
"China's genuine demand for housing is relatively strong," as more than 11 million people are newly employed in urban areas each year, Wang Menghui, head of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said at a news conference.
Wang also believed that a large number of people are eager to live in spacious homes, partly driven by strict COVID-19 control measures.
China aims to offer 2.4 million units for affordable rental housing this year, Wang said, after 942,000 units in 40 cities with high population inflows helped meet demand from 3 million people last year.
Property regulations are unlikely to be loosened across the board, analysts say.
"China will maintain the continuity and stability of policy measures while strengthening the precision and coordination of such measures," Wang said.
The government will continue to eliminate any project delivery risks by some individual property developers due to their debt defaults, Vice Housing Minister Ni Hong said at the same news conference.