BEIJING, CHINA - Delinquency rates on Chinese banks' property loans remain low, especially for residential mortgages, despite a downturn in the real estate market, a central bank official said on Tuesday.

Banks had extended 2.95 trillion yuan in home loans by the end of November, up 10.6 percent from a year earlier and accounting for about 10 percent of their local currency lending, Huo Yingli, a deputy director in the financial market department of the People's Bank of China, told a news conference.

'Despite a correction in the property market and changes in house prices last year, the quality of property loans, especially home loans, is still good, with the non-performing loan ratio far below that of other types of loans,' she said.