China property market digest, April 19-30 | Reuters

BEIJING, April 30 (Reuters) - Here is a look at the latest news, numbers and more from China's real estate market.

Investment in the property sector accounted for 13 percent of China's gross domestic product in 2011.

In response to soaring prices, Beijing has rolled out an array of measures since late 2009 to rein in property speculation and has won some success. House prices have fallen from record highs since October, 2011.

But China's vows to keep its property curbs in place have fueled worries that they may further drag on an economy that is already cooling, and saddle banks with more bad loans.

REUTERS NEWS

April 25 - Garth Peterson, a former managing director in Morgan Stanley's real estate investment and fund advisory business, pleaded guilty for secretly arranging to have millions paid to himself and a Chinese official and disguised the payments as finder's fees charged to the Wall Street bank.

April 25 - Singapore-based shopping centre developer CapitaMalls Asia said it would spend 2.3 billion yuan ($365 million) to develop a mall in southern Beijing, buying the land from a subsidiary of the Poly Real Estate Group .

April 24 - China may introduce preferential policies for first-home buyers to help support the property market, the Shanghai Securities News reported, citing unidentified sources.

April 20 - More Chinese property developers have filed for bankruptcy, the South China Morning Post reported, as some small real-estate companies struggle after more than two years of measures by Beijing to curb home prices in China.

DATA

- Land sale revenues in Beijing fell 39 percent in the first four months to 13.5 billion yuan, Beijing News cited data from the local land reserve centre.

- Chinese banks extended 242.7 billion yuan loans to the property sector in the first quarter of 2012 down from 523.9 billion yuan in the same period of last year, the central bank said. The number included 157.4 billion yuan mortgage loans and 39.1 billion yuan loans to help build affordable homes in the first three months.

- China's northern port city of Tianjin has 2.5 million square meters of shopping centre space under construction, the top in the country, and is followed by Shenyang and Chengdu, a report by global real estate adviser CBRE showed.

CHINESE PRESS

April 27 - Some second- and third-tier Chinese cities such as Wuhan and Nanchang have increased the amount of mortgage loans from local housing provident funds, which offers much lower lending rate than commercial banks, and the move may stimulate home buyers for self use. (National Business Daily)

April 27 - China will have a two-month reassessment on its affordable housing scheme starting in May, which may see the country cut down its initial target of building 36 million cheap homes in the 2011-2015 period to around 30 million. (21st Century Business Herald)

April 27 - China's property market will not rebound and the market should not underestimate the government's determination on curbing property speculation. (People's Daily)

April 23 - New home transactions in Beijing rose 25 percent so far in April from the same period in March to 5,130 units thanks to price cuts, data from several local agencies showed. Fresh supplies hitting the market in May will hit 10,000 units, which will probably press prices down further. (Beijing Times)

April 20 - More than 200 housing projects in Beijing are offering open discounts, accounting for about 40 percent of total new home projects on sale. (Beijing Evening News)

THEY SAID

- "Now is a good time for developers to buy land, because the land price is relatively low and the local governments are offering many favorable terms, such as a lower down payment and a longer period for full payment." (Fan Xiaochong, vice president of Sunshine 100, told China Securities Journal)

- "To drive down China's high home prices, the country must encourage developers to build more ordinary homes and order state banks to collect loans that is already overdue or is becoming due and not renew them." (Feng Xiaodong, a real estate commentator, said in his blog) (Reporting by Langi Chiang and Nick Edwards; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)