In this paper we investigate the relationship between housing prices and mortgage lending in China. We analyze a sample of 28 Chinese domestic commercial banks during the period between 2003 and 2009. Our results suggest that the urbanization process in China contributes substantively to the mortgage credit boom. We find a distinct behavior of the economic housing market, in which the housing price and mortgage credits affect each other adversely. The monetary policy has a greater impact on the mortgage lending than banks’ characteristics. Raising bank reserves is a relatively effective instrument to control the mortgage credit boom. Our findings have important policy implications and account for the existing monetary policies which are implemented in China.
