(Yicai Global) Sept. 1 -- Four of China’s six biggest state-owned banks by assets saw an increase in their real estate non-performing loan rates in the first half of the year.

The property-related NPL rates of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, and Bank of Communications all rose in the six months ended June 30 from the end of last year, their recent earnings reports showed.

The reports of Bank of China and Postal Savings Bank of China revealed no such data. Bank of China did not explicitly reveal data on property NPLs, but its real estate loan impairment rate was 4.91 percent at the end of the second quarter, higher than the 4.68 percent at the end of last year.

The loan impairment rate also reflects asset risk, but cannot be simply compared to the NPL rate, according to a banking industry insider.

The property-related NPL rate was 4.29 percent at ICBC, up 1.97 percentage point from the end of last year; 1.56 percent at China Construction Bank, up 0.25 point; and 1.69 percent at Bank of Communications, up 0.34 point.

The increases show that the risk from real estate developers is beginning to spread to the nation’s commercial banks, Yan Yuejin, head of research at the Shanghai E-House Real Estate Research Institute’s think tank, told Yicai Global. Lenders need to pay special attention to business data from some property firms that are expanding too fast to prevent risks, he added.

The balance of personal housing loans at the six banks maintained an upward trend in the first half, the earnings reports showed. Bank of Communications saw the biggest gain of 7.23 percent from the end of last year.

Still, personal housing loans’ share of total loans extended by the six banks has declined amid intensive real estate market regulation this year. Only the figures for Postal Savings Bank and China Construction Bank are still above the regulatory ceiling.

Personal home loans’ share of total outstanding loans at state-owned banks is capped at 32.5 percent. The figure was 33 percent for Postal Savings Bank of China at the end of the second quarter, down 1 percentage point from the end of last year. It was 33.72 percent for China Construction Bank, down 1.01 point.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Peter Thomas