Closing loopholes in business loans into the property market
Our reporter Guo Ziyuan
The General Office of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission and other departments recently jointly issued the "Notice on Preventing the Illegal Flow of Loans for Business Purposes into the Real Estate Sector" to urge banking financial institutions to further strengthen prudent and compliance operations, and strictly prevent the illegal flow of loans for business purposes into the real estate field.
At the same time, it is required to further strengthen the management of intermediary agencies, establish a "blacklist" of violations, increase penalties and accountability and make regular disclosures.
At present, relevant rectification work is being carried out in an orderly manner.
What needs to be reflected is why the illegal entry of credit funds into the real estate market has been repeatedly prohibited?
How to better solve this problem?
To this end, a reporter from the Economic Daily visited some real estate agencies, commercial banks, and financial regulatory agencies in Beijing, and interviewed a number of home buyers.
Intermediary United Bank entered the market in violation of regulations
Use intermediary agencies to "cross the bridge" to arbitrage personal business loans, and then replace personal housing mortgage loans; after changing hands several times, embezzle personal business loans to pay for the down payment... The reporter found that the current credit funds entering the property market in violation of regulations Concentrated in the second set of commercial housing transactions, the operating tools are mainly personal business loans and personal consumption loans.
"Compared with the second set of commercial houses, buyers are not so much under pressure to buy the first set of commercial houses." Many brokers from Lianjia, I Aiwujia and other intermediaries said that according to the current policy, if the first set of commercial houses is purchased in Beijing, the area If it is less than 140 square meters, it is an ordinary residence, and the available loan ratio is 65% of the online signing price; if it is a non-ordinary residence, the available loan ratio is 60% of the online signing price.
In contrast, the loan amount for the second set of commercial housing appears to be relatively limited.
This is because the current recognition policy for the second house in Beijing is "recognize a house and subscribe for a loan."
Suppose someone owns only one set of commercial housing and has a mortgage loan, and plans to sell it a few years later and buy another one. However, due to the loan record, the newly purchased "actual only housing" is still considered as the second set of housing, at most Only 40% of the online signing price can be loaned.
"I bought a 70-square-meter small two-bedroom in 2014, and now I am going to replace it with a 90-square-meter large two-bedroom. Because I had a mortgage before, the replacement house was deemed to be a second set, and now there is a shortage of down payment funds. Big.” A buyer told reporters at the Lianjia Store on Nanlishi Road, Xicheng District, Beijing.
The reporter visited and found that the above types of funding gaps are quite representative, breeding soil for the illegal entry of credit funds into the property market.
In order to reduce the down payment expenditure of home buyers, some intermediary agencies will cooperate with commercial banks to help home buyers lend a personal consumption loan or personal business loan from the bank as part of the down payment.
Take personal consumption loans as an example. Although different banks can approve different loans, they are mostly between 800,000 and 1 million yuan.
Hit hard to plug loopholes
At present, the illegal entry of credit funds into the property market has aroused great concern from the supervisory authorities.
The reporter was informed that Beijing, Zhejiang, Guangdong and other places have launched investigations and initiated rectification and accountability.
"In accordance with regulatory requirements, banks within the jurisdiction have conducted self-examination of personal business loans issued since the second half of 2020, and found that approximately 340 million yuan was suspected of illegally flowing into the Beijing real estate market, accounting for approximately 0.35% of the total business loan self-examination business." The relevant person in charge of the Beijing Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau said.
In addition to the bank self-inspection, the Beijing Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau will also select a number of key institutions with relevant departments to further carry out special inspections.
"Beijing Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau has initiated administrative penalty case filing procedures and investigation and evidence collection work for 4 banks." The person in charge said that in the follow-up, based on the results of the investigation and evidence collection, banks whose loans have not been properly reviewed and the staff who have not performed their duties will be checked. Severe punishments will be imposed in accordance with laws and regulations.
"Guangdong Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau has established 6 verification teams, which were stationed in 6 bank outlets where public opinion was reflected on February 9th. Up to now, they have undergone big data screening, ledger analysis, file access, flow tracking, personnel interviews, etc. A variety of methods have been used to obtain evidence, and it has been discovered that business loans and consumer loans of more than 30 million yuan have been illegally flowed into the real estate market." The relevant person in charge of the Guangdong Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau said.
At the same time, the Guangdong Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau has deployed all banking institutions under its jurisdiction to conduct comprehensive self-examinations in terms of credit investigation, review and approval, post-loan management, and business cooperation with third-party institutions.
Up to now, 4501 bank outlets within the jurisdiction (excluding Shenzhen) have completed self-inspection of personal business loans, investigated 567.8 billion yuan of personal business loans and 216.5 billion yuan of personal consumption loans, and found that the amount of problematic loans suspected of illegally flowing into the real estate market was 277 million yuan.
At present, relevant banks have carried out rectifications in accordance with regulatory requirements, and have issued warnings, notices of criticism, point deductions, and financial penalties to internal employees who have violated regulations.
Increasing supply is the key
Despite repeated rectifications, the illegal entry of credit funds into the property market has been repeatedly prohibited in recent years. After strict inspections, many violations have revived.
Why does the above phenomenon occur?
According to industry insiders, there are many reasons why funds flow into the real estate market in a detour.
For example, housing prices in hot cities such as Shanghai and Shenzhen have risen rapidly, and the returns for investment speculators are still higher.
In addition, it cannot be ruled out that a certain degree of real demand exists.
Therefore, in addition to severely cracking down on investment and speculative demand, greater policy support can be given to the improved replacement needs of some home buyers.
However, judging from the current policy of "recognizing houses and subscribing for loans" in many key cities, cracking down on real estate speculation is still the top priority of supervision.
"Many people buy houses not for living, but for investment or speculation. This is very dangerous," said Guo Shuqing, chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission. "We must actively and steadily promote the steady and healthy development of the real estate market."
One of the ideas to promote the healthy development of the real estate market is to increase effective supply.
This year’s "Government Work Report" clearly stated that it is necessary to solve the outstanding problems of housing in big cities, by increasing land supply, arranging special funds, and intensive construction, to effectively increase the supply of affordable rental housing and common property housing, and to standardize the development of the long-term rental housing market. , To reduce the burden of renting housing taxes and fees.
"According to the Central Economic Work Conference, solving the prominent housing problems in big cities will be one of the key tasks this year." The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said that in the next step, we will vigorously develop affordable rental housing, improve long-term rental housing policies, and increase Large-scale land, fiscal and taxation, financial support, increase the supply of affordable rental housing and long-term rental housing, and solve the housing problem of migrant workers and newly-employed college students through multiple channels.
Our reporter Guo Ziyuan