Potential home buyers might be able to utilize the loans released by the Housing Provident Fund in any of the eight designated cities in Guangdong Province, without having to restrict themselves to the city where the loan application was filed and the money deposited.

A scheme aimed at sharing the fund among the eight cities will be announced within a month, the Guangzhou housing fund authority said yesterday on its website, without elaborating.

Usually, house buyers are allowed to apply for loans only in the city where they deposit the funds, according to the housing fund accumulation regulation.

"But they will be able to apply for loans in other Pearl River Delta cities once the scheme is on," Lan Dehua, director of the Huizhou Housing Accumulation Fund Center, said.

The scheme is designed to help integrate the PRD region, an economic powerhouse in southern China, Lan said.

Government authorities in the PRD region are working together in several economic and social sectors to enhance urban integration after the central government approved a plan to deepen the region's reform process late last year.

Given that deposit standards of the housing accumulation fund is different in each city, the loan standard for house buyers, if they want to apply for loans in other cities, will be altered, Lan said.

For example, a buyer who deposits the fund in Guangzhou can only apply for the maximum loan in Huizhou in accordance with the local standard, Lan said.

Currently, the maximum housing fund loan in Guangzhou is 500,000 yuan, higher than in any other cities in the region.

Wang Yiyang, deputy director of the Guangdong provincial government development research center, said the "mutual deposit and loan" scheme would help provide more affordable houses to residents of the PRD region.

"For example, a resident in Guangzhou, where the house price is higher than in other PRD cities, will be able to check out houses that cost less, if allowed to apply for housing loans outside the city," Wang said. "It will benefit residents in the region," he added.

(China Daily March 25, 2009)