Banks' exposure to property sector rises in 2013

Eleven publicly listed lenders that have released their 2013 results have reported a combined 3.2 trillion yuan ($516 billion) in outstanding property loans as of Dec 31.

Five other lenders have yet to release their results.

The figure stood at 3.16 trillion yuan for all 16 banks at the end of 2012.

The increase in outstanding property loans is adding to concern over lenders' asset quality, since the balance increased even as property prices appreciated more slowly.

The property market accounts for about 10 percent of China's economy, and it's widely believed that bubbles formed in the sector during several years of rapid price increases.

Bank of China Ltd had the biggest balance at 625.2 billion yuan, accounting for 8.22 percent of its total loan balance.

Next came Agricultural Bank of China Ltd, with 549.6 billion yuan, or 7.6 percent of the total.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd, the biggest bank in the world by assets, said its property loan balance declined 30 billion yuan.

Property loans as a percentage of the total fell to 5.34 percent at the end of 2013 from 6.39 percent a year earlier, the lowest among the 11 banks.

On Tuesday, the China Index Academy said that housing prices in China's 100 biggest cities increased 0.38 percent in March to 11,002 yuan per square meter, the 22nd consecutive month of gains. But the growth rate slowed by 0.16 percentage point from February.

Year-on-year, prices were up 10.04 percent in March, 0.75 percentage point less than in than February.

The growth rate has slowed for three consecutive months on a year-on-year basis.

Shanghai Deovolente Realty said in a report on Tuesday that housing supply exceeded demand by 800,000 sq m in the first quarter in Shanghai, where home prices have been the most robust across the country.

The agency added that the gap signals that prices are about to decline.

The cooling of the property market comes with the slowing of China's economic growth.

Zhang Zhiwei, a Hong Kong-based research analyst with Nomura Securities Co Ltd, said in a report last week that he expects Chinese economic growth to be 7.3 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, 0.2 percentage point short of the government's full-year target of 7.5 percent.

Without faster policy easing, he added, growth will likely drop below 7 percent in the second or third quarter.