China's central bank on Tuesday announced eased financing rules for rental of affordable homes, as part of a broader push for housing market sustainability.

Loans to real estate projects certified as affordable housing for rent will no longer be subject to a property credit concentration regulation, according to a statement jointly released Tuesday by the People's Bank of China (PBC) and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC).

At the end of 2020, the PBC and the CBIRC put a cap on banks' outstanding property loans as a part of their total lending and their outstanding mortgages versus total lending.

Banks have been urged to step up support for affordable rental homes and to provide financial products and services in a manner that's law-based, controllable in risk terms and commercially sustainable, the statement said.

The Tuesday statement will boost rental of affordable homes, Yan Yuejin, research director at Shanghai-based E-house China R&D Institute, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Property developers will be encouraged to apply for loans specifically allocated to affordable housing, according to Yan, noting that the loan-capping regulation remains in place.

China has been trying to curb excessive property loans for some time, with the evolution of the Evergrande debt issue casting a cloud over the country's housing market last year.

Throughout 2021, there were nine domestic property bond issuers that confirmed de facto defaults or triggered cross-default clauses, involving 44 bonds, an increase of 80 percent from the year before, Chinese industry portal fangchan.com reported Tuesday, citing a recent report on developers' credit.

That suggests a corresponding debt issuance of 57.29 billion yuan ($9 billion), a surge of 82.16 percent year-on-year from the whole of 2020, per the report.