China's real estate loan growth eased at the end of 2021 compared with a year before, according to data from the People's Bank of China (PBOC) on Sunday.

At the end of 2021, outstanding yuan-denominated real estate loans nationwide stood at 52.17 trillion yuan (8.18 trillion U.S. dollars), up 7.9 percent year on year, 3.7 percentage points lower than at the end of 2020, the PBOC data shows.

New real estate loans in 2021 stood at 3.81 trillion yuan, accounting for 19.1 percent of total new loans during the same period, 7.2 percentage points lower than in the previous year.

Real-estate development loans at the end of 2021 were 12.01 trillion yuan, an increase of 0.9 percent, 5.2 percentage points lower than at the end of 2020.

Chinese authorities said the country would support the property market to better cater to the reasonable demand of home buyers and adopt city-specific policies to boost the virtuous cycle and healthy sector developments. China will simultaneously reiterate the principle that "housing is for living in, not for speculation," in a tone-setting economic meeting in December last year.

By the end of 2021, China's outstanding personal housing loans totaled 38.32 trillion yuan, up 11.3 percent year on year, 3.3 percentage points lower than in the previous year.