China pledges more financial support for 'whitelist' real estate projects

China will expand its "whitelist" of real estate projects and speed up bank lending for these unfinished developments to 4 trillion yuan ($561.8 billion) by the end of the year, the country's housing ministry said Thursday.

Ni Hong, China's minister of housing and urban-rural development, made the announcement at a press conference, alongside officials from the central bank, finance ministry and the National Financial Regulatory Administration.

A total of 2.23 trillion yuan had already been approved in loans to whitelisted developers. That figure will almost double to 4 trillion yuan by the end of 2024, according to a senior official from the financial regulatory administration.

Launched in January, China's "whitelist" initiative allows city governments to recommend residential projects to banks for speedier lending. The intent was to ensure the completion of unfinished housing projects so they could finally be delivered to buyers.

All commercial housing projects are now eligible for the whitelist, Xiao Yuanqi, vice minister of the financial administration, said. The move is expected to broaden the list. It was not immediately clear how many more projects would get support. Analysts said the comment did not indicate all housing projects can be added to the white list.

Xiao also stressed that banks should deploy funds "as soon as possible," saying they could release the loans in full to developers rather than in tranches, according to CNBC's translation of the Chinese.

The briefing was the latest in a series of high-level government policy announcements aimed at bolstering the economy.

In late September, Pan Gongsheng, the People Bank of China governor announced a 50 basis-point cut to the amount of cash banks need to have on