The "pot" of income inversion cannot be carried by home buyers. Banks should further optimize their services and effectively lower the threshold for early repayment in terms of helping the national economic recovery, improving the structure of public expenditure, and undertaking social responsibilities.
With the frequent adjustment of first-home loan interest rates in many places, housing loans have entered a low-interest rate range, and many home buyers have begun to consider early repayment.
However, repaying the mortgage early is not as easy as imagined.
According to reports, someone made an appointment with the bank to repay the loan in advance at the end of last year, but it has not been approved so far.
Some netizens reported that they wanted to repay the mortgage in advance, but the bank actually demanded payment of liquidated damages.
Why is there a wave of queuing up to repay loans in advance?
The reason behind it can be attributed to a key word: income inversion.
In the past few years, real estate was a high-quality investment product. During the peak period, housing prices in some areas rose by 10 to 20 percent a year.
In order to stimulate the market, the developer United Bank introduced loose standards for lower down payments, which drove more people to buy houses with loans.
After all, compared with the high increase in house prices, the mortgage interest rate of around 3% or 4% can be ignored.
According to the sales price changes of commercial housing in 70 large and medium-sized cities in December 2022 released by the National Bureau of Statistics, there are 53 cities where the sales price of new commercial housing has decreased year-on-year, an increase of 2 from the previous month; the sales price of second-hand housing has decreased in 64 cities. indivual.
When the value of real estate is no longer stable, home buyers are burdened with high mortgages and interest rates. The higher the ratio of mortgages and the longer the repayment period, the more interest expenses they will pay.
From the perspective of economically rational people, early repayment can shorten the repayment cycle and reduce interest expenses.
But for banks, they are also faced with the tightening of investment channels.
As the domestic macroeconomic environment is still in the recovery stage, it will take time for the real economy to recover, and the number of foreign investment targets for banks is reduced.
In contrast, the return on investment of the mortgage business is higher. If the buyer repays the loan in advance, it will affect the income of the bank including interest. There will be soft resistance to home buyers repaying their loans in advance.
Obviously, the inversion of income has become the key to the high enthusiasm of home buyers to repay their loans in advance, and the bank's resistance to this.
However, the "pot" of income inversion cannot be entirely carried by home buyers. Banks should further optimize their services and effectively lower the threshold for early repayment in terms of helping the national economy recover, improving the public's expenditure structure, and undertaking social responsibilities.
Judging from the recent financial reports of some banks, the overall rate of return of banks is still not low.
In the first three quarters of 2022, the six major state-owned banks collectively achieved a net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company exceeding one trillion yuan, an increase of 6.47% over the same period in 2021.
By the end of 2022, the balance of RMB real estate loans (that is, loans that home buyers have not yet repaid to banks within the loan period) reached 53.16 trillion yuan.
An excessively high proportion of housing loans will put heavy pressure on people's daily life and consumption. Early repayment of loans can partially relieve this pressure, and it will also allow people to have more money to use in other consumption areas after the reduction in interest expenses, thereby driving The growth of domestic demand will promote the development of related industries such as the service industry.
The banking industry should serve the overall situation of high-quality economic development in our country and take on more social responsibilities. It may be possible to take part of the income previously obtained from the housing loan business and give it back to home buyers.
At the same time, it is also an important reform direction in my country in recent years to guide banks to "get rid of virtual reality and turn to reality".
In recent years, through the guidance of national policies, banks have been strengthened to invest more funds in the development of the real economy and reduce blind investment in real estate, finance and other fields.
In the same way, banks provide support for the majority of home buyers to repay their loans in advance, which can not only effectively reduce the burden on home buyers, but also use the funds for credit in the real economy, which can force banks to continuously improve their financial service capabilities for the real economy. Reducing the previous path dependence of "lying on the interest rate differential to make money" is also beneficial to the internationalization and market-oriented development of my country's banking industry.
Chengdu Commercial Daily-Red Star News special commentator Bi Ge