Speculators are kept from cheap loans for homes

Would-be home buyers in Beijing have been jumping through hoops ever since new rules came in to make it harder to use false documents and lie when applying for favorable first-home loans.

In order to define whether a loan is for a first house or a second house, banks, including local branches of foreign institutions, can no longer rely on the public credit registries system. They now need to investigate house ownership information with the help of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-rural Development, according to a regulation jointly issued by the commission, the People's Bank of China and other two related authorities.

The move was made to prevent people who already own houses but who do not have loans from applying for favorable first-house loans.