Property lending accelerates in H1

China's property lending accelerated in the first half of the year as the real estate market continues to heat up, according to data released by the People's Bank of China on Friday.

Outstanding property loans extended by major financial institutions in China increased 18.1 percent to 13.56 trillion yuan ($1.95 trillion) at the end of 2012, 1.7 percentage points higher than three months earlier.

Average housing prices in 70 cities rose 6.5 percent month-on-month in June, marking the sixth-straight month of increases in housing prices, according to figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Thursday.

Lending for land development rose 17.2 percent to 1.06 trillion yuan by the end of June, 4.2 percentage points lower than in the January-March period.

Outstanding loans for property development totaled 3.26 trillion yuan, an increase of 11 percent from a year earlier, and 1.3 percentage points lower than at the end of March.

Lending to individuals for home purchasing rose 21.1 percent to 9.07 trillion yuan as of the end of June, 3.7 percentage points higher than three months earlier.

Loans for affordable housing development projects grew 37.5 percent to 658 billion during the same period, 4.9 percentage points lower than at the end of the previous quarter.

Outstanding loans to companies totaled nearly 53.2 trillion yuan, up 12.3 percent from one year earlier, and 1.9 percentage points lower than three months earlier. Total outstanding loans rose 14.2 percent to 68 trillion yuan by the end of June.

The growth of short-term outstanding loans to companies registered a decline of 4.4 percentage points from three months earlier as the world's second-largest economy continues to slow down.

The PBOC figures showed that in the first half Chinese lenders have extended loans of 5.08 trillion yuan, up 221.8 billion yuan year-on-year.