The People's Bank of China announced on the 24th that it has jointly issued five new policies on real estate finance with the State Administration for Financial Regulation. The Governor of the People's Bank of China, Pan Gongsheng, revealed the above information at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office on the same day. Pan Gongsheng stated that the first policy is to guide banks to lower the interest rates on existing housing loans. The interest rate of existing housing loans will drop to around the interest rate of newly issued loans, with an expected average decrease of about 0.5 percentage points. The second policy is to unify the minimum down payment ratio for mortgage loans to 15%. Commercial personal housing loans at the national level will no longer distinguish between first and second homes. Pan Gongsheng explained that local governments can adopt differentiated arrangements to determine the lower limit of the minimum down payment ratio within their jurisdiction based on the national bottom line. In addition, commercial banks can negotiate with customers to determine the specific down payment ratio level based on their risk status and willingness. The third policy is to extend the deadline of two real estate financial policy documents. Pan Gongsheng said that in the early stage, the government introduced the "16 Financial Measures" and policies related to operating property loans. Among them, the phased policies of extending the existing financing of real estate enterprises and operating property loans will expire on December 31, 2024 according to the document. This time, these two policies will be extended until December 31, 2026. The fourth policy is to optimize the policy of re lending for affordable housing. On May 17th, the People's Bank of China announced the establishment of a 300 billion yuan guarantee housing refinancing loan, guiding financial institutions to support local state-owned enterprises in purchasing unsold commercial housing at reasonable prices in accordance with market-oriented and rule of law principles, for use as allocation or rental guarantee housing. This is an important measure to reduce inventory in the real estate market. To further enhance market-oriented incentives for banks and acquisition entities, the proportion of central bank funding for the policy of re lending for affordable housing has been increased from 60% in the past to 100%. The fifth policy is to support the acquisition of existing land by real estate companies. On the basis of using some local government special bonds for land reserves, research is being conducted to allow policy banks and commercial banks to provide loans to support eligible enterprises in market-oriented land acquisition and purchase, activate existing land use, and alleviate the financial pressure on real estate enterprises. When necessary, the central bank can also provide refinancing support. Pan Gongsheng said that this policy is still under study. (New Society)