Wu Jian, executive vice-president of BOC, said that despite increasing external uncertainties, the underlying conditions supporting China's long-term growth remain intact. BOC will strengthen forward-looking risk assessment, firmly guard against systemic risks, further optimize its credit structure, and enhance risk management in areas such as real estate, local government debt and structural imbalances in key industries.

Zhang Hui, president of BOC, said the bank supported efforts to stabilize the property market last year by issuing more than 500 billion yuan in residential mortgages. This year, it is steadily expanding both mortgage lending and non-housing consumer loans, promoting coordinated development across products, customer segments and consumption scenarios to build a comprehensive consumer ecosystem.

From late 2025 to early 2026, the real estate market exhibited new characteristics: on the one hand, the reduction in interest rates for existing mortgages and housing provident fund loans has pushed the cost of home purchases to a new low; on the other hand, further targeted, effective and sustainable policy support is still needed to bolster market confidence, said Li Yong, an analyst at Soochow Securities.

Zhou Wanfu, executive vice-president of BOCOM, noted that while the real estate market experienced a brief upswing in the first quarter of last year, with mortgage loans growing year-on-year, it remained in a period of deep adjustment in the first quarter of this year, and BOCOM saw mortgage repayments exceed new disbursements, resulting in negative growth. However, he also pointed out that the volume of mortgage applications at the bank has risen significantly since March, up around 15 percent compared with both the first two quarters and the latter half of last year.

Zhou believes this signals a stabilization in the property market. If the trend continues, mortgage lending could gradually return to positive growth this year, helping drive retail loan growth toward target levels.

Supported by a series of ongoing policy measures, China's real estate market showed a trend of steady improvement in the first quarter. Transaction volumes for existing homes in some major cities have rebounded significantly since March.

On March 22, the number of contracts signed at second-hand home agencies in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, hit a five-year high for a single day. On April 11, Shanghai's daily online transaction volume for second-hand homes also reached a five-year high. Some institutions view this as a positive signal that the real estate market is likely to bottom out by the end of 2026.

Data from real estate information provider CRIC show that the transaction area for second-hand homes in 20 major cities nationwide reached about 17.97 million square meters in March, up 117 percent month-on-month and 6 percent year-on-year. In April, the transaction area for second-hand homes in the 20 key cities was approximately 17.93 million sq m, up 17 percent year-on-year. The cumulative transaction area for the first four months in these cities was approximately 59.18 million sq m, an increase of 8 percent year-on-year.

Analysts said this is not merely a short-term rebound from an oversold market, but rather a sign that market confidence is steadily strengthening as mortgage rates are gradually lowered and home purchase policies are gradually relaxed. Furthermore, this trend is likely to continue into the second quarter.

jiangxueqing@chinadaily.com.cn