With the changes in the real estate market, more and more people are repaying their loans in advance, and there are even long queues for this, and many young people have also joined them.
Choosing to repay the loan in advance is of course for the purpose of reducing interest rates, but experts remind that "repaying the loan in advance cannot blindly follow the trend."
You should repay the loan rationally, considering not only your own affordability, but also changes in future mortgage interest rates, and make a comprehensive judgment.
There are also expert suggestions: reduce the stock loan interest rate or allow home buyers to convert fixed interest rates to floating interest rates.
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Homebuyers' "loan repayment wave" in advance is intensifying.
At 0:00 on February 1, Chang Wei, a post-90s individual industrial and commercial household from Xuzhou, Jiangsu, once again stared intently at the mobile banking App page of a state-owned bank, refreshing, clicking, refreshing... Repeated this many times, but still failed to grab the The February prepayment amount issued by the bank.
Chang Wei said, "I waited until 0:30, but it seems that there is no quota around 0:10."
Originally, Mr. Huang, a post-90s lawyer who lives in Wuhan, had successfully made an appointment for early repayment. However, when there were only 3 days left before the repayment date, he was notified by the bank that he could not repay the loan.
They are just the "miniature" of the difficulty of early repayment for home buyers.
On social platforms, many house buyers shared their experience of making an appointment for early repayment. Among them, there are many people whose repayment date is scheduled to September this year.
Bank staff have to queue up for early loan repayment
Chang Wei did not repay the mortgage early on a whim. He has always had this idea for the past two years. During the epidemic, his income was halved and unstable. Among them, his income was zero for 3 months, but he never dared to break the loan. This also made him want to repay the loan in advance.
In 2018, Chang Wei took out his savings, plus 1.1 million yuan from his parents, and borrowed 300,000 yuan from the bank at a loan interest rate of 5.7% to buy the wedding house.
Now, Chang Wei still has more than 260,000 yuan in the principal of the mortgage. Most of the tens of thousands of yuan repaid in the past are interest, and the principal only accounts for a small part.
According to the contract, after another 4 years, the principal part of the monthly repayment will exceed the interest. He said, "This means that I will work for the bank for 4 years."
He decided to use his savings of 200,000 yuan to repay the loan, shortening the remaining loan period of more than 60,000 yuan to 36 months. After that, he only needs to pay more than 5,000 yuan in interest. "Compared with the original interest of more than 160,000 yuan, this It's just zero."
Years ago, Chang Wei saw on the mobile banking app that he could apply for early repayment, but after the year after the year, the amount for early repayment was shown to be full.
When he went to the bank branch to handle it, he saw an announcement posted on the branch about the need to make an appointment at the bank counter for early repayment of mortgages. 3 months or so)".
"Now I have to pay more interest to the bank." Fortunately, Chang Wei successfully made an appointment to repay the loan in May this year. However, the reply from the bank branch staff still left him uncertain.
"The staff asked me to come earlier in May, and the sooner I come, the more stable I will be."
Successful appointment to early repayment does not mean successful repayment.
At the beginning of this year, Mr. Huang and his wife raised 450,000 yuan from relatives and friends, planning to repay the mortgage in advance.
On January 5, he went to the bank branch to make an appointment for repayment on February 6.
However, on February 3, he was informed by the bank that the bank had adjusted its internal policy, closed the offline repayment window, and waited for online approval. The time is uncertain.
He asked the relationship manager about the specific content of the bank's internal policies, and the relationship manager said, "I don't know."
For the above situation, the bank account manager asked Mr. Huang to find channels for feedback.
So, he complained to the relevant competent authorities and the Consumer Protection Department of the bank.
Prior to this, Mr. Huang had applied for early repayment through the mobile banking app, which showed that he "had not met the repayment conditions".
In fact, according to the contract, the repayment period is 12 months, the repayment is at least 30,000 yuan in advance, and the appointment is made 30 days in advance, and the repayment can be made after the bank approves. He has met these conditions.
The online channels were not working, so he had to switch to offline channels.
Mr. Huang did not expect that the road to repayment would be full of difficulties, as if he would go through "ninety-nine and eighty-one difficulties".
In response to the difficulty of repaying loans for some home buyers, the reporter consulted the staff of the credit department of a provincial branch of a state-owned bank as a loan repayer. He said that at present, online appointments can be made in the area, but there is a queue, which is estimated to be four or five. moon.
He revealed to the reporter of China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily that the current bank control quota, each bank has a certain monthly quota, and it will be gone when it is used up.
The bank staff member also said that the return on investment and financial management is not expected to be ideal, and many people are unwilling to put their money in the bank.
"Our colleagues are planning to repay the loan early, and they are all queuing up." Now there is no other way but queuing up. "Early application, early queuing, early repayment," he said.
"Don't want to work for the bank"?
"I don't want to work for the bank anymore." This is the common answer given by many home buyers about why they repay their loans in advance.
They raise funds in different ways. Some people redeem their investments, some borrow money from relatives and friends, some sell gold and other precious metals at home to repay the loan, and some "operate" through some housing intermediaries to convert the house loan into a business loan to reduce the house loan. interest rate……
Since buying a three-bedroom apartment in Wuhan at the end of 2021, Mr. Huang and his wife have lived a life of "saving food and clothing". As long as they have money left, they will save to pay off the mortgage.
Mr. Huang remembers that when they bought a house, they borrowed 1.36 million yuan in the form of "equal principal and interest". The mortgage interest rate at that time was 5.78%, which was at a high level.
He said, "We just need to live in it for ourselves, and we bought it on the (mortgage) 'top of the mountain' and recognized it."
At present, they have repaid for 13 months, and the repayment amount has exceeded 100,000 yuan, but the principal is only about 18,000 yuan, and the rest is interest.
Originally, Mr. Huang hoped to repay the 450,000 yuan before February 14 this year, but encountered obstacles. The daily interest of 450,000 yuan was 35 yuan. "One month's interest is enough to pay a month's heating bill."
Currently, he is still waiting for further feedback on the outcome of the complaint.
He plans to send a lawyer's letter to the bank at the same time, "It is true that the bank defaulted first."
Zhang Ran, born in the 1990s, said that when she bought a house in Kunshan, Jiangsu a few years ago, the mortgage interest rate was 6.4%.
At present, the mortgage interest rate in many areas has dropped to 3.8%.
Now, she found that only a few hundred yuan of the monthly repayment amount of more than 2,500 yuan was the principal, and the interest exceeded 2,000 yuan.
In order to pay off the loan as soon as possible, Zhang Ran also worked part-time as a teacher in addition to working in human resources.
In July last year, after paying off the debts owed to her relatives, she repaid the mortgage with the 100,000 yuan she had saved, and the repayment went smoothly at that time.
She plans to continue saving money and pay off the loan in advance in two or three years. After calculation, she can save more than 300,000 yuan.
"I have only one goal now, which is to repay the loan."
At the beginning of buying a house, Sha Sha, a 24-year-old sales assistant working in Shanghai, and her boyfriend planned to repay the loan in advance at a uniform rate to relieve pressure for the future.
In March 2021, Sha Sha and her boyfriend bought a large house of 145 square meters in Kunshan, Jiangsu with a loan of 1.22 million yuan, and started a "Tale of Two Cities" style of life.
At that time, the mortgage interest rate reached 5.7%, and they needed to repay more than 7,100 yuan per month, of which only about 1,300 yuan was the principal, and the rest was all interest.
She did some calculations, and if she repays the loan according to the contract, she will have to pay more than 1.3 million yuan in interest in 30 years, which has exceeded the principal.
She sighed, "The mortgage interest rate is too high."
In addition to the mortgage, the two have to pay a total of 4,000 yuan a month in alimony to the elderly on both sides.
At the same time, considering the uncertainty of career development, as well as the childbearing and education costs of future children, and the uncertainty of future industry development, they chose to pay back 200,000 yuan per year.
In August last year, they repaid the principal of 200,000 yuan in advance.
In January this year, Sha Sha successfully made an appointment for early repayment again, because the bank will transfer the money in the next month, and she is still waiting for the deduction.
In fact, Shasha has also considered converting the mortgage into a business loan to reduce the mortgage interest rate.
Some intermediaries have contacted them and said that they can provide "bridge money" to help them apply for business loans.
In the end, she worried that the risk was too great, so she gave up.
As a senior practitioner in the real estate industry for 19 years, Zhao Hengcheng, the manager of the self-media "80 Shuofang", also observed that some people will choose to convert their housing loans into business loans, that is, buyers will pay off in advance at one time. Mortgage loans, and then through the company to mortgage the real estate for loans, the loan interest rate can be reduced to 3.7%.
"In fact, there are many intermediaries who use this as a 'gap' in the market to 'confuse' everyone to convert housing loans into business loans."
But it is very clear that it is illegal for consumers to use "bridging funds" to settle their mortgages, and then go to the bank to apply for a business loan to return the bridge funds.
In response to some illegal intermediaries that induce consumers to replace housing loans with business loans, the official website of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission has previously issued a reminder that this kind of operation hides hidden dangers of breach of contract and law, traps of high fees, affects personal credit, capital chain breaks, Infringement of information security and other risks.
A staff member of the credit department of a state-owned bank said that the bank will often check similar situations, and non-enterprise operators have illegally transferred business loans, which has certain default risks and legal risks.
"It is found that consumers have misappropriated loans, and the loans can be recovered in advance."
Why is it difficult to repay the loan in advance?
Why is it difficult for ordinary people to repay their loans in advance?
Li Yujia, chief researcher at the Guangdong Provincial Housing Policy Research Center, pointed out that in recent years, bank lending rates to the real economy have dropped significantly, with a drop of 34 basis points in 2022.
Among them, in order to reduce the financing costs of small and medium-sized enterprises, the support for small, medium and micro loan enterprises with lower loan interest rates must be maintained at a relatively high level.
Therefore, mortgages are high-quality assets for banks.
In 2022, the growth rate of personal housing loans will drop.
On February 3, the "Statistical Report on Loans to Financial Institutions in the Fourth Quarter of 2022" released by the People's Bank of China showed that the balance of personal housing loans at the end of last year was 38.8 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.2%, and the growth rate was 10 percentage points lower than that at the end of the previous year.
Li Yujia explained that applications for incremental mortgages will decline in 2022, and for existing mortgages, buyers will demand early repayment, which will naturally affect bank earnings.
Li Yujia has been paying attention to the "early loan repayment trend".
He found that in the first half of 2021, ordinary people were still "waiting in line for loans", but now they are "waiting in line for loan repayment". After more than a year, such a big contrast occurred. The background is that people's expectations for the property market have reversed.
In January this year, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that in 2022, the sales of commercial housing will be 13.3308 trillion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 26.7%.
In Li Yujia's view, in the past, ordinary people generally believed that housing prices would rise, and the return on assets was far greater than the cost of raising mortgage interest rates.
Now, after the common people's expectation of housing prices has been reversed, the cost of houses has fully appeared, and they are more sensitive to mortgage interest rates.
The continuous reduction of mortgage interest rates is one of the reasons why ordinary people repay their loans early. At present, the mortgage interest rates in dozens of cities have entered the "3%" era. In addition, some cities have temporarily canceled the lower limit of first-home loan interest rates.
Zhao Xiuchi, a professor at Capital University of Economics and Business and vice president and secretary-general of Beijing Real Estate Law Society, pointed out that housing loan contracts have a long term and are calculated with compound interest. Small changes in interest rates have a great impact on borrowers’ repayment burden. Consumers want to save money There is nothing wrong with increasing income.
In addition, many people chose a fixed interest rate when converting the existing loan interest rate. Now they find that the market interest rate is low and they suffer a loss. Repaying the loan in advance is also a way to make up or correct it.
Zhao Xiuchi also observed that some people choose to repay their loans early and then apply for a loan with a lower interest rate, but very few people do not take out loans after repayment.
Zhao Xiuchi explained that the main reason is that the previous stock loans chose a fixed interest rate when the interest rate was converted, and the contract interest rate cannot fall with the decline of the loan market quotation rate (LPR). It is necessary to repay in advance and then apply for a loan to enjoy the current low market. interest rate.
Another reason is that the interest rate of the borrower's mortgage contract is relatively high, which is higher than the loan interest rate of small and medium-sized enterprises, and home buyers may "detour" borrowing.
"At the moment, ordinary people are not repaying their mortgages in a 'retaliatory' manner." Zhao Hengcheng believes that at present, the rate of return on financial investment is declining, and ordinary people with savings in their hands lack good investment channels. At the same time, they find that the income brought by real estate is significantly lower than expected , Repaying loans in advance is to a certain extent "stopping losses in time".
In Zhao Hengcheng's view, banks are also one of the "promoters" for the intensification of "early repayment tide".
Banks have set many restrictive conditions for early loan repayment, such as paying liquidated damages, closing online channels, and queuing up.
He explained, "This kind of restriction by the bank will not reduce everyone's repayment willingness, but will stimulate everyone's repayment willingness. Many people will have an idea of conflicting interests: 'The more the bank does this, the more worried I am about repayment. , the more you want to earn my interest, so you have to pay it back.'”
Regarding the partial repayment restrictions imposed by banks, Zhao Xiuchi believes that according to the loan contract, early repayment by home buyers will disrupt the bank's funding plan, and it is normal for banks to charge certain liquidated damages, but there should be clear terms in the loan contract.
She also pointed out that home buyers have to wait a long time for early repayment, because there are currently more prepayers. Banks should improve their work efficiency and should not delay borrowers' early repayment with excuses.
Experts recommend lowering stock mortgage interest rates
At present, many people are waiting to see whether to repay the loan in advance.
In fact, not everyone is suitable for early loan repayment, and many experts call for "rational loan repayment".
Zhao Hengcheng pointed out that at present, these types of people are more suitable for early repayment of loans. First, they have funds in hand, but they have not found a good investment channel; Third, for those with a relatively short repayment period, interest often accounts for the main part of the previous repayment.
He also pointed out that if the home buyer has repaid the loan for more than a certain period of time, the interest part of the outstanding loan is already very limited, and early repayment will not greatly reduce the cost of capital use.
At present, calculating how to repay the loan in advance is more cost-effective has become a "compulsory course" for many home buyers.
Generally speaking, there are three modes of early repayment, namely full repayment in advance, partial repayment in advance with the same loan term, and partial repayment in advance while shortening the loan term.
How much interest can be saved by repaying the loan in advance has a lot to do with the loan amount of the buyer, the ability to repay in advance, the interest rate of the mortgage, and the repayment period.
For example, a house buyer borrows 1 million yuan from the bank at a loan interest rate of 4.3%, and the loan period is 30 years. Among them, according to the repayment method of equal principal and interest, the monthly repayment is 4948.71 yuan, and the total repayment amount is 1.7815 million yuan .
Many banks stipulate that home buyers can only pay in advance after one year. Based on the calculation of 13 months of repayment, early repayment will start in February this year. One-time repayment can save 731,800 yuan in interest; if you choose to repay in advance 20 If you choose the repayment method of equal principal and interest in the future, you can save 149,200 yuan, and if you choose the method of equal principal, you can save 246,600 yuan.
The home buyer still repays 200,000 yuan in advance, the monthly payment remains unchanged, and the repayment period is shortened to 10 years. If you choose the repayment method of equal principal and interest, you can save 550,600 yuan. If you choose the repayment method of equal principal, then It can save 562,600 yuan in interest.
If a homebuyer has been on repayment for a longer period of time, the interest savings can also change significantly.
Still the above conditions, the buyer has already repaid the loan for 8 years and 1 month, so the one-time early repayment can save 456,500 yuan; Save 307,900 yuan, and choose equal principal, you can save 317,700 yuan.
"You can't blindly follow the trend of repaying loans in advance." Zhao Xiuchi also pointed out that the loan contracts of home buyers vary widely, and specific issues need to be analyzed in detail.
From a personal point of view, you should repay the loan rationally. You must consider not only your own affordability, but also changes in future mortgage interest rates, and make a comprehensive judgment.
A number of people in the industry and experts told reporters that more people choose to repay early in order to lower interest rates. In this regard, some experts suggested: reduce the interest rate of stock loans or allow home buyers to convert fixed interest rates to floating interest rates.
"As long as the mortgage interest rate is higher than the wealth management interest rate, as long as housing prices are still falling, and residents expect housing prices to fall, the motivation to repay loans in advance will always exist." Li Yujia predicts that in the future, more cities will cancel the lower limit of housing loan interest rates, especially housing prices. Fallen city.
On the one hand, it is to reduce the inversion between the mortgage interest rate and the wealth management interest rate; on the other hand, it is to reduce the mortgage interest rate to buffer the decline in housing prices.
At the same time, the recent property market policy has shifted more to demand-side bailouts, with the purpose of encouraging people to buy houses and alleviating the expectation of falling house prices.
In addition, Zhao Xiuchi also suggested that from the perspective of national policy, home buyers who originally chose fixed interest rates for stock loans should be allowed to switch to floating interest rates based on LPR.
(At the request of the interviewees, Chang Wei, Zhang Ran, and Sha Sha are pseudonyms)
China Youth Daily·China Youth Net trainee reporter Zhao Limei Jia Jiye Source: China Youth Daily