"Before, my two houses had a total of 1.45 million mortgages, but the mortgage interest rates of the two houses were very high, one was 4.75%, and the other was 6.1%. The monthly repayment of the mortgage would cost about 9,000 yuan." After getting a 3.7% operating loan interest rate, Wen Jing, a home buyer in Hangzhou, was moved.
After a series of operations, Wen Jing paid off the loans of the two houses at one time. Based on the operating loan interest rate of 3.7%, the monthly payment saved more than 3,000 yuan.
In fact, the regulatory authorities have long banned the flow of operating loans into the real estate market, which is nothing new to the market.
Recently, the replacement of mortgage loans with operating loans has made a comeback. The reason is that there is a large interest rate difference between bank operating loans and personal housing mortgage loan interest rates, which provides room for funds to flow into the property market in violation of regulations.
The huge interest rate difference has also attracted the attention of market players: some "high-ranking car" buyers hope to reduce the pressure of repayment by cashing out their loans; some intermediary agencies also take this opportunity to do business, claiming to help home buyers A lot of interest.
What are the risks behind replacing a mortgage with a business loan?
Can homebuyers really save a ton of money?
The first financial reporter conducted an in-depth investigation on this.
"Save more than 3,000 per month"
"Before, my two houses had a total mortgage of 1.45 million, with equal principal and interest for 20 years. But the mortgage interest rate of the two houses was very high, one was 4.75% and the other was 6.1%. The monthly repayment of the mortgage would cost about 9,000 yuan "Wen Jing told the first financial reporter after successfully applying for a business loan to replace a house loan that she paid off the loans for two houses at once after applying for a business loan. It is the method of interest first and capital later. The monthly repayment is more than 4,000 yuan. If the principal repayment is included, the monthly payment is about 6,000 yuan.
"Banks are very loose in terms of loans. My loan is a 3-year product with a loan interest rate of 3.7%, and the loan is relatively small. I feel that the term you choose depends on your own real estate situation." Wen Jing said.
For Wen Jing, saving three or four thousand yuan may not be a big deal, but at least it has an extra disposable income.
The reason why the "operating loan replacement mortgage loan" has become popular recently is mainly due to the repeated reduction of the LPR (quoted loan rate) with a period of more than 5 years this year and the continuous decline in the loan interest rate of small and micro enterprises.
In recent years, financial support for small and micro enterprises has continued to increase. The operating loan interest rate of many commercial banks has been lowered to below 4%, which is lower than the first-home mortgage loan interest rate in many places; Down 35 basis points, from 4.65% in December 2021 to 4.3% in August this year.
The huge interest rate difference has also attracted the attention of market players: For existing housing loans, some "high-ranking car" buyers hope to reduce the pressure on loan repayment by cashing out of operating loans; some intermediaries, including real estate agencies, loan intermediaries, Finance companies, etc., also took this opportunity to start their business, claiming that they could help home buyers convert their high-interest rate mortgages into low-interest business loans, saving a lot of interest.
The intermediary helps "package"
Business loans are financing products for small and medium-sized business owners or individual industrial and commercial households. Borrowers can obtain bank loans through real estate mortgages and other guarantees, and the loan funds are used for the business needs of their enterprises or individual businesses.
An account manager of a Shanghai branch of a city commercial bank told reporters that the basic conditions for his bank to apply for a business loan are: the applicant has been a shareholder or has become the legal representative of a company for one year, and needs to provide the company's business records.
But these most basic constraints do not seem to be difficult for some intermediaries.
Since each bank has different application conditions for business loans, and the review standards are also tight and loose, many intermediaries also claim that they can let customers get business loans smoothly for unqualified lenders.
Some real estate intermediaries in Beijing told reporters that their agencies can provide loan replacement services.
Specifically, the existing housing mortgage loan of Bank A can be paid off first, and then the real estate can be mortgaged in Bank B to obtain funds with lower interest rates in Bank B in the form of business loans.
Regarding the process, the intermediary said in detail that, first of all, if the buyer has no idle funds on hand, he needs to find an advance funder and use the bridge funds to pay off the original mortgage; at the same time, if the buyer’s occupation allows him to start a company, the The intermediary company helps to apply for the shell company; finally, the intermediary company connects with a familiar bank, applies for a business loan from the bank, and mortgages the house to the new bank. The business loan will be issued to the company account of the above-mentioned shell company, and then the intermediary agency will help withdraw money.
Wen Jing also told reporters that the finance company she contacted can help apply for business loans, so that some unqualified lenders can also get loans.
"They have contacted a lot of banks and understand the standards of each bank. For example, to apply for a business loan now, you need to look at the company's business flow. If you have a company, but the company's annual turnover does not exceed 1.5 million, you need the help of a financial company Make a purchase and sale contract and package the business flow."
Hidden risks and hidden fees
In fact, not only Wen Jing, but also many "high-ranking car" buyers have been fascinated by this business.
However, the reporter's investigation found that there are not only many hidden charges in the replacement of housing loans with operating loans, but also the process is relatively complicated, and a series of hidden risks may also appear in the follow-up.
For example, among the three links introduced by the above-mentioned intermediary, each link hides different charging items.
The reporter learned from interviews that the charging items involve the service fees of intermediary companies, cash-out fees, and fees for purchasing shell companies, and there are differences in different situations.
"The amount of the fee can only be determined after reviewing the information. Generally speaking, if it is an old house book with no company under its name, the current interest rate can be applied for as low as 3.65%. We charge 1% service fee, 0.3% cash-out fee, and 15,000 Of course, each bank has different requirements.” said a real estate intermediary in the Beijing area mentioned above.
"I have a company and it is operating normally, so I don't need to pay extra for this part. In addition, I have cash in my account and pay it off in one go. The amount of my loan is very small, only 1.4 million. The finance company is based on The minimum standard is charged, and the handling fee starts at 20,000 yuan. At that time, I calculated that it was less than 20,000 yuan, so I charged it at the starting price of 20,000 yuan." Wen Jing told reporters, "My essential appeal is to put Interest rates come down."
But lucky ones like Wen Jing are often a minority.
Due to the cumbersome process and different processing cycles, the final cost paid by the lender is uncontrollable.
"To be specific, the processing speed of each bank is different. It can be as fast as a week or as slow as two or three months. For example, if you go to repay the mortgage of Bank A, it will be approved in three days, but your business loan If you don’t have free funds, you need to walk across the bridge and wait for the money from the business loan to come down, and then you can return the money to the intermediary company, which is charged at daily interest rates for a few days.” The above mentioned The bank account manager said that for some lenders, the cost of advances plus the fees of other intermediary links, in fact, the lenders did not save much money in the end, and they still took great risks.
And even if you successfully apply for a business loan and pay off the mortgage, subsequent risks still exist.
Among them, bank loan suspension, personal credit records affected, and contract fraud may all be problems that lenders need to face.
"There are also risks in the business loan lent out. It is impossible to withdraw it directly. It needs to be transferred to different accounts for diversion. I have probably transferred three to five lots. Different people and different banks are needed. To be honest, the process is very difficult. It’s troublesome, otherwise, the risk of the bank cutting off the loan is very high.” Wen Jing recalled.
According to a banker, replacing housing loans with operating loans still has certain policy risks.
At present, the 1-year LPR is 3.65%, and the LPR of more than 5 years is 4.3%.
"Many intermediary agencies say that business loans can be approved for 10 years, and the interest rate is below 4%. In fact, low-interest business loans should be granted based on the 1-year LPR, while the pricing of long-term loan interest rates is anchored at a period of more than 5 years. LPR. These low-interest business loans are often only used for one year, and must be repaid in one year. Since the deferred repayment is implemented now, the lender only needs to repay the interest first. Once the regulatory requirements are all cleared, the lender needs to repay in one go .” A banker told reporters.
According to Dong Ximiao, chief researcher of China Merchants Union Finance, replacing housing loans with business loans has legal risks and repayment risks for individuals.
"The fabricating of false materials involved in the early stage and defrauding loans by registering a false company is a serious crime of defrauding loans, and the lender may be involved in criminal responsibility. In addition, the term of business loans is often relatively short, and the term of housing loans is long, so there is a risk of term mismatch. , will lead to problems in repayment ability, and overdue will also affect personal credit records.”
You can start by lowering the mortgage interest rate
In fact, the regulatory authorities have long banned the flow of operating loans into the property market.
On March 26, 2021, the central bank and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued the "Notice on Preventing Loans for Business Purposes from Flowing into the Real Estate Industry in Violation", from strengthening the qualification verification of borrowers, strengthening credit demand review, strengthening loan term management, strengthening loan collateral management, strengthening In terms of loan-to-loan and post-loan management, strengthening internal management of banks, etc., urge banking financial institutions to further strengthen prudent and compliant operations, and strictly prevent business-purpose loans from flowing into the real estate sector in violation of regulations.
At the same time, it is required to further strengthen the management of intermediary agencies, establish a "blacklist" of violations, increase punishment and accountability, and regularly disclose.
On November 4 this year, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued 8 fines in one go, of which 5 were punished because personal business loans and consumer loans violated regulations and flowed into the real estate market.
China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, and China Merchants Bank were fined, and those responsible were given warnings.
The root cause is that the interest rates of bank operating loans and personal housing mortgage loans are inverted, which provides room for funds to flow into the property market in violation of regulations.
"If business loans entered the property market in violation of regulations before 2000, it was mainly for arbitrage of credit lines, and the current phenomenon is mainly for arbitrage, that is, to obtain lower loan interest rates." Dongfang Jincheng Chief Macro Analyst Wang Qing told reporters that according to the central bank's data, the weighted average interest rate of newly issued residential mortgage loans in September was 4.34%, while the interest rate of corporate loans in the same period was 4.0%; The interest rate will be lower, which provides a strong arbitrage incentive for operating loans to enter the property market in violation of regulations.
Wang Qing believes that to solve this problem, we can start by lowering the interest rate of residential mortgages.
On the one hand, it will reduce the space for illegal arbitrage, and more importantly, this will be the key to guiding the real estate industry to a soft landing as soon as possible.
"Next, with the 5-year LPR quotation lowered (possibly at the end of this year and early next year at the earliest), there is still room for a certain downward trend in residential mortgage interest rates, and the phenomenon of its inversion with corporate loan interest rates is expected to be gradually reversed. will also be significantly reduced.”