The Chinese government has decided to regulate the country's
real estate mortgage evaluation sector to reduce loan risks of the
banking sector.
A leading official of the Housing and Real Estate Department of
the Ministry of Construction said Tuesday the move will be launched
by the ministry, in cooperation with the ,
or the country's central bank, and the China Banking Regulatory
Commission.
According to a circular issued recently by the ministry, the
central bank and the commission, commercial banks should evaluate
the property offered for mortgage before granting the mortgage
loan.
The value of property to be mortgaged should be set through
consultations between the parties involved, or by specialized real
estate mortgage evaluating institutions, according to the
circular.
Under the circular, real estate administrative departments are
forbidden to ask mortgage loan applicants for commissioning the
evaluation or designate selected real estate evaluation
institutions to do the job.
The evaluation should be commissioned, in principle, by
commercial banks, unless the banks and the lenders of the loans
have written agreement, and the evaluation fee should be covered by
the banks that commission the job.
Real estate evaluation institutions should stick to the
principle of independence, objectivity and impartiality, follow the
rules on real estate evaluation, and should not compete for
business by agreeing to demands for overestimating or
underestimating the value of properties for kickbacks.
There are about 3,500 real estate evaluation groups with
32,000licensed evaluators in China, according to the Association of
Real Estate Evaluator and Agents.
(Xinhua News Agency January 25, 2006)