Photo showing a national housing fund card which can also be used as a debit card in Shenzhen. [Photo: baidu]

An official with the Ministry of Housing is calling for the establishment of a national housing bank to help assist the property market.

Zhang Qiguang, head of the supervision department with the government's national housing fund is calling for a stand-alone financial institution to take over from the current system.

Zhang suggests the bank could then offer low-interest loans to help middle and low income families afford houses.

He suggests this could help to optimize the use of the current housing fund, as well as stimulate the sluggish housing market in the long-term.

The housing fund, which collects capital by taking a chunk of an employee's salary, offers urban residents lower mortgage rates than those of commercial banks.

However, it is a complicated procedure to borrow from the fund, meaning much of the capital ends up sitting unused.