SHANGHAI: China’s top regulators expressed their support for stabilising the property sector in meetings on Wednesday, which has greatly boosted confidence and strengthened market expectations, resulting in a broad rally of real estate shares in Thursday trading.

       “Regarding real estate enterprises, it is necessary to study them in a timely manner, come up with effective solutions to prevent and mitigate risk, and put forward supportive measures for the transformation to a new development approach,” it was decided at a meeting held by the Financial Stability and Development Committee under the State Council on Wednesday, Xinhua reported.

       It was indicated that the central authorities are fully aware of the potential risks undermining the property sector and they intend to introduce solutions to guard against and mitigate such risks, said Du Minmin, an analyst with Sinolink Securities.

       The gesture by the committee meeting is a big booster for the industry’s recovery of confidence. Currently, confidence is more important than anything else for the property market, said Ding Zuyu, CEO of E-House (China) Enterprise Holdings Ltd.

       After the meeting, more follow-up measures may be rolled out to spur the market, Ding said.

       Also, top regulatory bodies, including the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), the country’s central bank, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC), China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the State Administration of Foreign Exchange and the Ministry of Finance, have all voiced their resolve on the same day in eliminating risks and supporting the property sector’s healthy development.

       The PBoC held a meeting stressing it will “stick to stable and progressive growth, whilst making efforts in preventing and resolving real estate market risks”.

       The CBIRC also stressed the need to uphold the principle of “housing is for living in, not speculation”, continue to perfect the long-term mechanism of property with stable land prices and home prices, and market expectations, encourage secure and orderly M&A lending by institutions, support mergers and acquisitions for prime property projects and promote the healthy development of the sector to form a virtuous circle.

       The CSRC vowed to provide help for the reasonable financing of the real economy, and actively cooperate with related departments to effectively eliminate real estate enterprises’ risks. — China Daily/ANN.