Banks have been permitted to refuse additional mortgages to home buyers who already own two or more properties as the Chinese government continues its efforts to rein real estate prices, the Wall Street Journal reported. In addition, the State Council was granted local governments temporary powers to limit the number of property purchases made by individual investors within a certain period. In a notice released Saturday, the State Council said that, if banks decided to issue mortgages to third-home buyers, they should "greatly increase" the minimum down-payments and mortgage rates. It also said that banks should stop issuing mortgages to non-residents who haven’t paid local taxes or welfare-benefit fees for more than a year. The move comes after the minimum down-payment for second-home purchases was raised to 50% from 40% last week, with mortgage rates no less than 1.1 times benchmark rates. A minimum 30% down-payment was also set for first homes in excess of 90 square meters.
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