CCB raises mortgage rates for first-time home buyers

China Construction Bank (601939.SH, 0939.HK), the country’s biggest mortgage lender by assets, raised rates for first-time home buyers at its Beijing branches, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing state media. No information was available on the new rate. Banks in China’s large cities stopped offering discounted rates on mortgage loans for first-time buyers earlier this year, a sign that lending curbs designed to reign loans fuelling property price rises are being implemented even against home buyers, as opposed to speculators. A government think tank interpreted the move as a sign that Beijing will continue lending restrictions aimed the property market, but a column in the Financial Times argues that Beijing risks overdoing it. Prices in the secondary property market in Wenzhou, for example, are down 10% since June.