China's housing minister said Thursday that the country would adopt targeted policies to revive confidence in its property sector, pledging more support for first and second home buyers, in a bid to ease the country's deepening property slump.

First home purchases will be strongly supported, said Ni Hong, head of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, in an interview with China's state broadcaster, urging for further cuts in down payment ratio and mortgage rates as stimulus.

China's central bank and top banking and insurance regulator announced Thursday that cities where home prices report on-month and on-year falls for three consecutive months can lower or remove the mandated floor of mortgage rates for local first-time buyers.

Reasonable support will be given to second home purchases by families that are looking to replace their old or small homes, or that have more than one child, said Mr. Ni. Purchases of three or more homes won't be supported in principle, Mr. Ni added, reiterating Beijing's persistent stance on cracking down once-widespread speculation in the sector.

Mr. Ni also vowed to increase supply of public rental housing and further support the development of the country's private long-term rental housing market for new city dwellers and young people.

China will seek to resolve developers' risks and improve housing construction standards, Mr. Ni said. "We will join forces to rectify the order of the real-estate market, so that the public can buy and rent houses with confidence," he said.

China's economy has been grappling with a protracted property crisis, prompting Beijing to roll out a sweeping housing rescue plan in November that largely aimed at shoring up developers' finances.

Private data indicated new-home sales in the country continued to fall in December, the 18th consecutive month of year-over-year declines. Sales at China's top 100 developers fell by 31% to the equivalent of about $98 billion, according to industry data provider China Real Estate Information Corp.


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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-05-23 0925ET