Shanghai Hasn’t Studied Home Lending Curbs, Government Says

(Bloomberg) -- Shanghai hasn’t studied further lending curbs to cool its soaring property market, the housing department of the city government said.

City authorities said they will continue to follow lending curbs announced on March 25 to “ensure healthy and stable development” of the city’s real estate market, according to a statement on its microblog late Monday. Shanghai’s housing department issued the statement in response to what it called a recent “rumor” on new policies to restrict lending for home purchases.

Shanghai is preparing to discuss a fresh round of curbs aimed at combating surging property prices, including potential restrictions on mortgages and loans to developers, people familiar with the matter said last week. Home prices in China’s second-biggest city climbed 27 percent in July from a year earlier.

Beijing and Tianjin are also contemplating new measures to rein in prices, people familiar with the matter said last week. Those cities haven’t issued similar statements denying that there are studying measures to cool prices.

--With assistance from Jun Luo and Emma Dong To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Vercoe in Sydney at pvercoe@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sree Vidya Bhaktavatsalam at sbhaktavatsa@bloomberg.net, Peter Vercoe

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