Home Loans Break Above 12 Trillion for First Time, Up 5.02% Year-on-Year
The Central Bank released September consumer loan and construction loan statistics. At end-September, total bank home loan balances reached 12兆234.29億元, up 769.94億元 from August and up 5.02% year-on-year, breaking above 12兆元 for the first time and hitting a nearly 1-year high. The Central Bank noted that home loan growth was mainly driven by 新建 projects being completed and handed over in succession, as well as an increase in building transfers, reflecting funding disbursement demand as existing projects enter the handover stage. However, the Central Bank also cautioned that this September was affected by the Ghost Month for 11 fewer days than in 2025, so the comparison base differs, and a single month of data alone is not enough to conclude that market conditions have fully rebounded; the sustainability of transfers and handover progress still needs to be observed.
Construction Loans Fall for 7th Straight Month, Posting Largest Drop in Nearly 10 Years
In contrast to the upward trend in home loans, construction loans for housing construction and other uses continued to shrink. At end-September, outstanding construction loans fell to 3兆3972.29億元, down 189.52億元 from August, declining for 7 consecutive months since the February 2026 peak, and down 0.99% year-on-year, the largest drop in nearly 10 years and the 4th consecutive month of year-on-year decline. The Central Bank explained that developers have gradually repaid financing after project completion, while developers remain conservative toward launching new projects, both contributing to the lower loan balances, showing diverging funding demand between new project development and handover of existing projects, with developers' overall expansion pace turning cautious.
Real Estate Lending Ratio Falls to 23.79%, Lowest in Nearly 16 Years
Even as home loan balances rose, pressure on banks from statutory lending limits eased. The Financial Supervisory Commission stated that at end-September, the average real estate lending ratio of 36 domestic banks calculated under Article 72-2 of the Banking Act was 23.79%, down 0.18 percentage points from August and down 1.98 percentage points from 25.77% a year earlier, hitting a nearly 16-year low, with no bank exceeding 27%. Under the Banking Act, banks' residential and construction lending shall in principle not exceed 30% of total deposits plus financial bonds, and banks usually reserve a buffer before the statutory cap, so a lower ratio helps ease quota-control pressure. The FSC explained that this was mainly because related real estate lending increased by only about 400億元 in September, while bank deposits and financial bonds expanded by about 6900億元, narrowing the lending share; in addition, the policy-based New Youth安心 loans are excluded from the calculation, so this statutory ratio cannot be directly compared with home loan balances.