(Yicai Global) July 14 -- Medium- and long-term mortgage lending rose in China last month to the second-highest level this year despite a slowdown in early home loan repayments. But such lending is unlikely to soar further due to the soft real estate market, according to industry insiders.

Mid- and long-term home loans jumped by CNY463 billion (USD64.8 billion) in June from a year earlier, official figures showed. 

Borrowers need to wait in line for a month and a half to repay loans ahead of time, a significantly shorter period than the three months or longer required earlier this year, according to a state-owned bank.

Mortgages are a major part of China's household debt, with longer-term loans usually in line with property sales. But sales at the top developers tumbled 28 percent to CNY526.7 billion in June from a year ago, data from the China Real Estate Information Research Center showed.

In addition to cooling early mortgage repayments, other factors driving up mid- and long-term mortgage lending included some cities lowering down payments to attract homebuyers, said Wang Qing, chief macro analyst at Golden Credit Rating International. Some banks also granted partial home loans before the end of last month to hit their first-half targets, Wang added.

According to people in the industry, it will be hard for the pace of lending to continue last month's high growth. While Ming Ming, chief economist at Citic Securities, noted that it will be hard for this to happen before real estate sales recover, and there are uncertainties about whether there will be big growth in the future.

Editor: Martin Kadiev