China: China's national housing bank could offer low interest rate housing loans to help middle and low income home buyers, bolstering demand in a sluggish real estate market and reducing risks for commercial banks, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
Zhang Qiguang, head of the ministry's housing provident fund supervision department, also proposed the housing fund include rural workers who seek jobs in urban areas and offer government support to help them buy homes.
At the end of March 2015, China offered tax breaks to home buyers and reduced deposit requirements for the second time in six months in a bid to halt a slide in house prices that threatens to undermine the world's second-largest economy.
The housing market is worth the equivalent of around 15% of China's economy and its sluggish performance has held back economic growth and subdued activity in an array of sectors from cement to steel to glass making. Prices fell at a record annual pace in February 2015.