Recently, Chongqing made adjustments to its housing loan policy, the first move of this kind in China. According to inside sources, if house-owning borrowers, who purchase extra houses through housing loans, have to use over half of their income to pay for the monthly installments, they are required by some of the banks to pay 50 percent of the entire housing costs as the initial installment payment. In the mean time, banks also have the right to consider whether or not increase the housing loan rates by 10 to 20 percent for these borrowers, considering the borrowers' income and credit.

For more details, please read the full story in Chinese. (http://www.china-cbn.com/s/n/000002/20071009/020000056897.shtml)

(China.org.cn October 9, 2007)