China’s capital-market and banking regulators unveiled a coordinated overhaul of real estate financing on August 28. The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) opened refinancing, mergers and acquisitions, bond issuance and REITs (real estate investment trusts) channels for listed property developers, shifting financing toward project quality rather than overall corporate creditworthiness and applying the approach equally to enterprises of all ownership types. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA) extended the maximum personal housing-loan term from 30 to 40 years and introduced a lead-bank system for development loans. The package supports private placements, property-related acquisitions, corporate bond rollovers, CMBS (securities backed by commercial property mortgages), ABS (asset-backed securities), rental-housing and urban-renewal REITs, and private real estate investment funds, while imposing project-based reviews, look-through monitoring and zero tolerance for fraud or fund misappropriation. Development loans will be matched to project cycles, with terms of up to five years for pre-sale projects and up to seven years for completed-unit sales and commercial real estate projects. Loan disbursements are to be delayed until specified project milestones, supporting the principle that homebuyers can take possession before repaying. Analysts say the measures should benefit developers with quality projects and sound operations while placing tighter constraints on highly leveraged companies with weaker assets.