New personal consumption loans soared in Shanghai in the first six months of this year mainly due to a surge in home transactions that have propelled new mortgages, according to the central bank.

New personal consumption lending, including mortgages and auto loans, totaled 60 billion yuan (US$9.7 billion) in Shanghai by the end of June, 50.8 billion yuan more from a year ago, the Shanghai Head Office of the People's Bank of China said in a statement released yesterday.

New mortgages in Shanghai rose for the fifth consecutive month in June. Banks lent 8.6 billion yuan of mortgages last month, 5.8 billion yuan more than a year ago.

According to official data, monthly average of new mortgages was around 6.4 billion yuan during the first half.

In the second quarter, new mortgages surged 10.8 billion yuan from the previous quarter, and 23.6 billion from the same period of last year to 24.7 billion yuan.

"The rise (in the second quarter) was due to a surge in property transactions and loan approvals," the statement said. It usually takes banks two months to approve home loans.

Home transactions in the city skyrocketed right after the central government announced on March 1 tighter property restrictions including a 20 percent capital gains tax. Sales of new residential properties rose by more than one-third year on year to 5.59 million square meters in Shanghai in the second quarter, according to the Shanghai Statistics Bureau.

New auto loans totaled 16.2 billion yuan in the first half, up from last year's 12.2 billion yuan, the central bank said.

Shanghai's outstanding loan in all categories was 4.3 trillion yuan at the end of June. Total new lending reached 184.8 billion yuan in the first half.