Chinese officials meet to mull support for developers: Bloomberg

Chinese leaders are meeting Friday with top housing officials to discuss a possible plan for the government to buy millions of unsold homes in a bid to support the struggling property sector, Bloomberg reported.

The State Council -- the Chinese government's top body -- is seeking input from key industry players as they seek to finalise a strategy, with several developers embroiled in an unprecedented debt crisis.

Among those plans could be a scheme by Beijing to have local governments purchase millions of unsold homes across the country, Bloomberg said.

Friday's meeting is being attended by regulators, representatives of top banks, local governments and the property market, Bloomberg News said.

Beijing has not confirmed the meeting will take place, but the State Council has said it will convene a briefing at 4pm local time (0800 GMT), attended by officials from the housing ministry as well as those from China's top regulator and its central bank.

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Shares in Chinese developers have rallied in Hong Kong in recent days on hopes of fresh support for the sector.

Liu Aihua, spokesperson and chief economist of the National Bureau of Statistics, told a news conference on Friday that the country's property sector "continues to be in a period of adjustment".

The meeting comes as official figures Friday showed that property prices and sales in the country continued to slip in April.

Property and construction accounts for more than a quarter of China's gross domestic product, but the sector has been under unprecedented strain since 2020, when authorities tightened developers' access to credit in a bid to reduce mounting debt.

Since then, major companies including China Evergrande and Country Garden have teetered, while falling prices have dissuaded consumers from investing in property.

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Measures introduced by the central government to support the sector have so far had little effect.

In a bid to boost purchases, a growing list of urban areas have rolled back curbs on buying homes.

Source: AFP