City's new second-child incentives include preferential home-loan rates

Families that have two children will enjoy preferential policies for housing loans in Xianning, Hubei province, in Central China, under one of the local government's new measures to encourage new births.

The city's health and family planning commission published a document on Wednesday announcing several measures regarding baby care and home purchases to help families with two children.

In what is believed to be a first for China, families with two children will get the same interest rate for their second home purchase as that for the first home under the new measures. Usually, families have to pay higher interest when they take out a loan to buy a second home in the city and other places in China.