(Beijing) – Authorities in Heilongjiang are set to offer subsidies to homebuyers in a bid to reduce a large stockpile of unsold homes in the rustbelt province in China's northeast.

Provincial official said in a statement released on April 22 that they ordered lower-level governments to survey their stockpile of homes and work out detailed subsidy programs to prop up the housing market.

Buyers will be also given access to subsidized home loans, the provincial government said, without elaborating. The statement did not set a deadline for introducing the subsidies.

Shenyang, the capital of the northeastern province of Liaoning, unveiled a plan late in March aimed at spurring the property market by offering college students cash, cheaper loans and tax breaks if they bought a home.

The three northeastern provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning were once a bastion of heavy industry but they have been hit hard by a property glut that comes as the economy slumps and young workers leave to work elsewhere.

Nominal GDP, or growth before inflation is considered, was minus 0.29 percent in Heilongjiang, 0.26 percent in Liaoning and 3.41 percent in Jilin in 2015, figures that are basically a sign of a hard landing, the 21st Century Macroeconomic Research Institute said in a recent report. The institute is linked to the 21 Century Business Herald newspaper.

As a result, home sales in terms of floor space in the three regions fell by more than one-third year-on-year in 2014 and dropped by a further 23 percent in 2015 to under 30 million square meters, according to Shenzhen World Union Properties Consultancy Inc.

Yuan Hongchang, a vice president of the consulting firm, told a forum in Beijing on March 29 that it will take the three regions at least 7.3 years to dispose of their unsold homes, much higher than the national average of 2.9 years.

The three provinces would need 26.6 years to offload unsold office buildings, while the national average was 11.1 years.

The country had 3 billion square meters of unsold homes at the end of March, according to Shenzhen World Union Properties Consultancy. The company does not provide regional breakdowns.

Some analysts said that the subsidy programs will be of limited help in addressing the excess stockpile of homes in the northeast, and instead authorities should push for drastic economic restructuring to bolster demand for property.

(Rewritten by Li Rongde)