Securities Times reporter Zhang Da

On May 21, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development issued a notice requiring local housing provident fund management centers to do a good job in lowering the personal housing loan interest rate of housing provident fund. On the same day, the reporter of the Securities Times learned that Wuhan, Hefei and other hot cities implemented new policies on housing loans, which defined the minimum down payment ratio of housing loans and the lower limit of housing loan interest rates.

The notice of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development requires that the urban housing provident fund management center should be guided to adjust the individual housing loan interest rate of housing provident fund in a timely manner. According to the requirements of the Notice of the People's Bank of China on Lowering the Interest Rate of Personal Housing Provident Fund Loan, the interest rate of personal housing provident fund loan will be lowered by 0.25 percentage points from May 18, 2024, and the interest rate of the first personal housing provident fund loan of less than five years (including five years) and more than five years will be adjusted to 2.35% and 2.85% respectively, and the interest rate of the first personal housing provident fund loan of less than five years (including five years) The loan interest rate of the second set of personal housing provident fund and the second set of personal housing provident fund for more than five years are adjusted to not less than 2.775% and 3.325% respectively.

At the same time, the notice requires that the urban housing provident fund management center should guide the policy convergence of interest rate adjustment for individual housing loans of stock housing provident fund in accordance with the Business Specifications for Individual Housing Loans of Housing Provident Fund, and for loans with a term of one year or less, the contract interest rate should be implemented, and the interest should not be calculated in sections; If the loan term is more than one year, the new interest rate regulations shall be implemented according to the corresponding interest rate grades from January 1 of the next year, unless otherwise specified by the state.

On the same day, the reporter of the Securities Times called the housing loan departments of many Wuhan branches, such as Bank of Communications and China Merchants Bank, and the relevant staff told the reporter that Wuhan had started to implement the new housing loan policy on May 20, with the down payment ratio of the first house not less than 15% and the housing loan interest rate of 3.25%; The down payment ratio of the second set of housing shall not be less than 25%, and the mortgage interest rate shall be 3.35%.

The reporter of the Securities Times learned that the interest rate of the first house loan in Wuhan was 3.55%, which means that after the implementation of the new housing loan policy, the interest rate of the first house loan in Wuhan was reduced by another 30 basis points.

In addition, according to the public claim of "Anhui Communications Broadcasting", the latest news from the Hefei Joint Conference Office on Real Estate Market Regulation, Hefei has cancelled the lower limit of the loan interest rate policy for the first and second set of housing, and the actual interest rate of the first set of housing of banks has been adjusted to LPR minus 50 basis points, i.e. 3.45%, and the loan interest rate for the second set of housing has been adjusted accordingly. The minimum down payment ratio of commercial individual housing loans for the first housing is adjusted to not less than 15%, and the minimum down payment ratio of commercial individual housing loans for the second housing is adjusted to not less than 25%.

On May 17, the People's Bank of China issued three new policies on housing loans, involving reducing the minimum down payment ratio of housing loans, lowering the interest rate of housing provident fund loans, and canceling the lower limit of the national housing loan interest rate. After the new policy, the down payment ratio of commercial loans and the interest rate of provident fund loans have both dropped to a record low, and the lower limit of commercial loan interest rates has been removed to the most relaxed level in history.

According to incomplete statistics by the reporter of the Securities Times, following the announcement on May 17 to reduce the interest rate of individual housing provident fund loans, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Zhengzhou, Hefei, Changsha and other places have followed up the implementation.

The relevant person in charge of the Housing Provident Fund Supervision Department of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development said that the loan interest rate of the provident fund was cut by 0.25 percentage points this time, and the most direct beneficiary was the lender of the housing provident fund. Taking a personal housing loan of the first housing provident fund with an amount of 1 million yuan and a term of 30 years as an example, if the repayment method of equal principal and interest is selected, the monthly payment will be reduced from 427016 yuan to 4135.57 yuan, reducing by about 135 yuan, and the total interest expenditure will be reduced by 48500 yuan.

Chen Wenjing, director of market research of China Index Research Institute, pointed out that many places have announced to reduce the interest rate of provident fund loans to reduce the cost of home buyers. According to the information of the Central Bank, before the new deal, except for 8 cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the down payment ratio of the first and second set of housing in other cities has chosen to implement the national bottom line policy of 20% and 30%. It is expected that the down payment ratio of most cities will be reduced to 15% and 20% next. More cities will reduce the loan interest rate of the first and second set of housing. Third and fourth tier cities and ordinary second tier cities are expected to give priority to policy adjustment.

Yan Yuejin, research director of E-House Research Institute, also believes that Wuhan, Hefei and other places will reduce the down payment ratio to 15%, which is a very strong signal, indicating that the down payment ratio in various places will continue to decline. It is expected that the minimum down payment ratio of the first house loan in all second tier cities may be reduced to 15%, which will play a positive role in further activating the housing purchase market, Objectively speaking, it also has positive significance for the activity of the national real estate market in May and June.