(Bloomberg) -- China’s banking regulator vowed to ensure developers complete construction for pre-sold homes, an attempt to alleviate homebuyer concern as more people threaten to boycott mortgage payments. 

The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission will work with the central bank, the housing ministry and local governments to ensure home delivery and social stability, Liu Zhongrui, an official with the regulator’s statistics department, said during a briefing in Beijing on Thursday. 

The authorities will also keep property financing “stable and orderly” while supporting the industry, Liu said. 

Regulators are seeking to defuse a growing consumer boycott of mortgage payments that risks spreading the real estate crisis to the banking system. The CBIRC earlier urged banks to increase lending to developers so they can complete unfinished housing projects, according to a report published Sunday by a newspaper affiliated with the regulator. 

Commercial banks’ bad loans rebounded by 107 billion yuan ($15.8 billion) in the first half of the year to 2.95 trillion yuan, as the nation’s economic slowdown weighed on lenders’ asset quality, Liu said. The bad loan ratio dropped slightly to 1.67%, he said. 

The mortgage strike, which kicked off in late June in a stalled China Evergrande Group development in China, has grown to more than 300 projects across more than 90 cities. The protests have exacerbated the country’s real estate woes and threaten to derail efforts to revive the market amid an economic slowdown. 

Property lending has been stable this year with mortgage rates falling, and banks have been granting home loans at the fastest pace since 2019, Liu said. 

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