BEIJING: Chinese banks lent 242.7 billion yuan ($38.5 billion) worth of property loans between January and March, down 54 percent from a year earlier, data from the central bank showed on Wednesday.
The drop follows a 38 percent decline in 2011 and suggests Beijing is scoring success in tightening lending standards for real estate developers and buyers to rein in a red-hot housing market.
Strong public discontent over China's home prices, which hovered stubbornly near record levels for most of last year, prompted Beijing to take an array of measures to curb the market.
It launched a maiden property tax in Chongqing and Shanghai and restricted the number of homes families can buy in some cities.
Property loans accounted for 10.2 percent of total new loans issued in the first quarter, down from 17.5 percent in 2011, the central bank said in a statement on its website.
Loans for the construction of public homes accounted for nearly half all new property loans issued at 39.1 billion yuan, or 47 percent of all loans to the housing sector in the first quarter.
Loan growth to property developers slowed to just 11 percent at the end of March from a year earlier, compared with a 17 percent increase at the end of last year.
The central bank said bank lending to small enterprises grew at a faster clip compared to last year, with such loans jumping 21 percent at the end of March, above average growth of 15 percent in new lending to all types of firms.
Meanwhile, mid- to long-term loans for the manufacturing industry dropped 31 percent in the first three months from a year earlier to 153.2 billion yuan, the central bank said.
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