BEIJING (Reuters) - China's central bank issued detailed rules on Sunday on interest rates on mortgage loans, following its reform to switch to a market-based reference rate for pricing new loans.
Effective from Oct. 8, banks will set individual housing loans based on the new loan prime rate (LPR), the People's Bank of China said in a statement published on its website.
The interest rate on individual mortgage loans for first-time home buyers cannot be lower than the LPR, and the rate on loans for second-time home buyers cannot be lower than the LPR plus 60 basis points, the central bank said.
(Reporting by Kevin Yao; Editing by Paul Tait)
