(Yicai) Dec. 2 -- Lenders in several Chinese cities, including Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Wuhan, have recently raised their mortgage rates, mainly because the real estate market has shown signs of recovery.

Banks in Hangzhou hiked the mortgage rates for first homes twice to 3.1 percent from 2.9 percent in the past two months, Yicai learned from real estate agents. Similar increases were also made by lenders in other cities.

The Chinese real estate market is starting to stabilize after a prolonged downturn period, with a noticeable rebound in both new and pre-owned apartment sales in many cities.

Banks are raising their mortgage rates mainly because they are eager to boost the yield on earning assets, said Yan Yuejin, deputy head of the Shanghai branch of the E-House China Research and Development Institute.

The net interest margins of central state-owned banks, joint-stock banks, city and rural commercial banks, and foreign banks all fell below the alert line of 1.8 percent as of Sept. 30, according to data from the National Financial Regulatory Administration. Mortgages are a long-term, stable source of interest-earning assets for lenders.

Some 7,475 new home sale contracts were signed last month as of Nov. 28, up 133 percent from October, according to data from the Leyoujia Research Center. The average transaction price for new apartments in the city was CNY49,000 (USD6,745) per square meter in November, up 2.1 percent from the previous month.

Editor: Futura Costaglione