Lenders step up issuance of mortgages

Chinese commercial banks stepped up the issuance of housing mortgages and will continue to do so in the second half of this year, due to relatively good asset quality and the high returns of housing mortgages.

Statistics from the People's Bank of China, the central bank, showed that renminbi-denominated loans increased by 463 billion yuan ($69 billion) in July. Most of the new loans were to households, which rose 457.5 billion yuan.

Several major commercial banks posted fast growth in housing mortgages in the first half of 2016, which accounted for more than half of the increase in their gross loans and advances to customers, according to the interim results announcement for the six months ended June 30.