The central bank yesterday met with eight state-run lenders and called for stricter reviews of industrial land financing to prevent hoarding and price gouging that could discourage real investment.
The meeting came after the central bank tightened credit controls on house purchases by corporate and multiple buyers, as well as on unsold houses and land financing.
State-run lenders, when processing loan requests for land deals, should ask borrowers to produce concrete development plans or affidavits that they plan to start construction within a certain time period, the bank said in a statement.
Local trade groups have urged the government to step in and address soaring industrial land prices as companies seeking to move production lines home from China have had difficulty finding empty plots.
The General Chamber of Commerce (全國商業總會) said that soaring land prices accounted for house price inflation this year, but policymakers have unfairly blamed construction companies.
It said that industrial plots of land are now more expensive than residential plots, an unimaginable phenomenon.
The bank said lenders should gradually call in loans or charge higher interest rates if borrowers fail to make good on their plans.
Stiffer reviews would help speed up the digestion of idle industrial land, it added.
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