What’s new: Developers in Foshan, a city in southern China’s Guangdong province, can now start selling their new homes before fully repaying their development mortgages to banks.

The new policy is a government initiative to address sales challenges encountered by government-acquired housing projects from troubled developers, according to a banker, speaking anonymously. As certain real estate firms have defaulted on development loans or become insolvent, banks refuse to allow mortgage releases which result in unsold properties.