A Chinese city rolled out a series of easing measures to boost liquidity at property developers, becoming the first major local government to address a cash crunch engulfing the real-estate industry.
Chengdu, the capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan with a population of about 21 million, is to accelerate approvals for home sales and property loans, as well as ease restrictions on using proceeds from pre-sales, a statement by the local housing authority late on Wednesday said.
“Chengdu is the first city authority to call for faster property-related loans in a clear official statement,” said Yan Yuejin (嚴躍進), research director at Shanghai-based E-house China Research and Development Institute (易居房地產研究院). “We may see other initiatives to press banks on faster mortgages soon.”
The move to boost liquidity in the beleaguered building sector comes as China’s home slump deepens, adding pressure on authorities to stabilize an industry that is estimated to account for almost one-quarter of economic output.
Some cities last week relaxed rules for land sales — a key revenue source for municipalities — after cash-strapped developers became reluctant to bid.
China’s State Council is calling on local governments to sell more special bonds this year to boost investment amid a slowdown in the economy.
Regulators are fine-tuning their long-running crackdown on the property sector after a credit crunch at China Evergrande Group (恆大集團) and other junk-rated developers began spreading to higher-rated peers.
In late September, the central bank urged financial institutions to help local governments stabilize the rapidly cooling housing market and ease mortgages for some homebuyers. Official media reported in recent weeks that faster mortgages are already on the way.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) chaired a meeting of the State Council on Wednesday, urging local governments to execute more public works projects at the beginning of next year, Xinhua news agency reported.
Regional governments should step up project preparation, facilitate the launch of works that are mature and make reasonable requests for special bond quotas next year, Xinhua said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last