A chief of China's central bank has urged the country's commercial banks to be quicker in approving and issuing loans to "eligible" home buyers, mainly first-time home buyers.

The statement was made by Liu Shiyu, Vice Governor of the People's Bank of China (PBC), when speaking to the heads of 15 commercial banks in a meeting on May 12 about housing financial services, according to a statement on the PBC's website.

Liu urged the banks to "properly allocate credit resources and prioritize credit demand of first-time home buyers."

Liu's statement came amid falling home sales and cooling home prices nationwide. Official data showed sales of residential property dipped 7.7 percent during the first quarter of 2014 to 1.1 trillion yuan ($176.6 billion).

To curb speculative buying, the government resorted to tightening measures such as higher down payments or a 20-percent capital gains tax. Banks have raised mortgage rates for home buyers due to tighter liquidity.

A survey by a real estate services firm E-House China, showed that nearly 90 percent of 69 bank branches in 22 Chinese cities have stopped offering preferential mortgage rates to first-home buyers, with some increasing the rates 5 to 10 percent above the benchmark rate.