China’s Central Government to Subsidize Mortgages for Lower-Income Homebuyers

This marks a shift from supply-side property support toward direct demand-side stimulus, with the central government absorbing part of borrowing costs rather than leaving it to local governments or banks. The targeted groups — new urban residents, young graduates and wage-earning families — are precisely the first-time buyers whose entry has stalled. The open question is whether subsidized credit revives transaction volumes or simply substitutes for purchases that would have happened anyway, and whether banks treat these loans as commercially viable.