(Yicai) Dec. 1 -- A slew of banks, including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Construction Bank, have begun holding discussions with Chinese developers to better understand their funding needs as they step up support for the country’s beleaguered real estate sector.

CCB has spoken with representatives from six builders, including Longfor Group, China Vanke, Seazen Holdings, Binjiang Real Estate Group, Midea Real Estate Holding, and Dahua Group, Yicai learned. The lender will offer credit support, investment banking services, and bond investment, and help them extend or adjust their their debt repayment terms.

Bank of China invited 15 builders to join talks on Nov. 17 to bolster cooperation and meet their needs in terms of credit, bond issuance, investment, urban village and affordable housing projects, as well as supply chain finance and cross-border business.

ICBC said that it has conducted one-on-one exchanges with state-owned, private, and mixed-ownership developers and will allocate more resources to loans, mortgages, mergers and acquisitions, syndicated loans, as well as bond underwriting and investment to support their financing needs.

The People’s Bank of China, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and the National Administration of Financial Regulation held a symposium for financial institutions on Nov. 17, urging banks to increase their financial support for real estate firms. Three days later, Bloomberg News reported that regulators were drawing up a draft list of 50 builders eligible for a range of financial support.

Several institutions and banking insiders told Yicai that because of concerns about the property market outlook, growth in the real estate loan book at banks is generally low, and the effect of credit easing remains to be seen, but it could boost market confidence.

In the first half of the year, borrowing by builders from China's four biggest state-owned banks rose more than 5 percent from a year ago, according to the lenders' interim reports. But lending from joint-stock banks fell. Meanwhile, a number of banks, including Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, saw mortgage lending fall year on year.

Editor: Emmi Laine