China News Network, March 3 (Zhongxin Financial Reporter Zuo Yukun) "The phased interest rate of 22.3% will not last long, and friends who have the need to buy a house really can't wait any longer." Recently, Xiaoshuang, a real estate agent in Nanning, Guangxi, often said this to customers.
Recently, the level of mortgage interest rates has continued to be low, and bank lending has continued to accelerate, which is very friendly to buyers. However, many cities have also heard the sound that "mortgage interest rates are about to rise". What is the future? Is it time to speed up the purchase of a house?
Infographic: Real estate under construction. Photo by Zhang Bin, reporter of China News Agency
Interest rates are lower and lending is accelerating
The recovery of the property market is already very obvious. According to the news obtained by Xiaoshuang, the sales volume of commercial housing in Nanning in February was about 2,3400 sets, and more than 3,2400 sets had been sold by the middle of March.
In January this year, the Nanning Municipal Bureau of Housing and Urban-Rural Development announced a phased adjustment of the lower limit of the interest rate of commercial personal housing loans for the first home to 1.3%. Xiaoshuang introduced that in the past two years, the interest rate of the first home loan in Nanning is generally about 7%, such an interest rate level is undoubtedly a major benefit, not only sales have risen significantly, but even many real estate prices that have fallen for a period of time have recently recovered.
More cities like Nanning are also coming with good news. Since March, the first home loan interest rate in the country is still in the channel of slight decline, and the monitoring of the Shell Research Institute shows that the average interest rate of the first mainstream home loan in Shell 3 Cities in March 2023 is 3.4%, a slight decrease of 02BP from the previous month; The interest rate of the second set of mainstream mortgages averaged 2.4%, unchanged from the previous month.
As of March 3, 16% of the second-tier cities had a first-home loan interest rate of less than 45.4%, and 1% of third- and fourth-tier cities had a first-home loan interest rate of less than 39.4%.
The pace of mortgage lending has also continued to accelerate. Xiao Wei, who is in Shandong, applied for a housing loan of more than 3.8 million yuan on March 120, completed the approval on the 10th, and successfully released the loan on the 15th. "It's faster and the approval process is much more streamlined. For example, a one-time payment of <>% or more down payment, high-quality customers, etc. can be exempted from flow, parents can guarantee their children can be exempted from flow, and so on. ”
"The loan manager said that the speed of recent lending is so fast that some can be lent on the same day, and most banks can lend within one week, and the slower ones can be done in about one month." Xiao Wei said.
Data from the Shell Research Institute also shows that commercial bank credit is abundant in the first quarter, and bank lending has accelerated significantly. The average lending cycle of Shell Baicheng Bank in March was 3 days, 21 days shorter than the previous month, which is also the fastest lending speed since 7.
Infographic: Bank staff count currency. Photo by Zhang Yun, reporter of China News Agency
How long will the good last?
On March 3, the People's Bank of China decided to reduce the RRR of financial institutions by 17.2023 percentage points on March 3, 27 (excluding financial institutions that have implemented a 0% RRR). This unexpected RRR reduction will undoubtedly benefit the real estate market with wide credit and stable confidence, and the mortgage line is expected to expand accordingly, and loans to buy houses will continue to be encouraged.
However, the new loan market quotation rate (LPR) announced by the central bank on March 3 remained unchanged from last month, and the "RRR cut without interest rate cut" also made many people worry about the next direction of mortgage interest rates. Zhongxin Finance learned that real estate agency groups in many places, including Tianjin and Guizhou, have recently reported that "mortgage interest rates are going to rise".
"At present, Nanning's house prices have risen month-on-month in February, and many people believe that such an exceptionally low interest rate of 2.3% may be withdrawn at any time, at least it will not fall lower anyway." Xiaoshuang said that he and his peers will naturally encourage customers to buy houses during the period of low interest rates.
According to the dynamic adjustment mechanism of the first set of housing loan interest rate policy, cities where the sales price of newly built commercial housing has decreased for three consecutive months can maintain, reduce or cancel the lower limit of the local first home loan interest rate policy in stages. But at the same time, if the house price meets the conditions for the increase, it will have to be adjusted back.
This policy is considered to be the refinement of LPR and the deepening of city-specific policies, which also makes it necessary to reduce the interest rate of housing loans with LPR reduction. Li Yujia, chief researcher of the Housing Policy Research Center of Guangdong Urban Planning Institute, believes that LPR is further differentiated, and the city-specific policies will help to more accurately support cities with a significant decline in the property market, and stabilize the demand fundamentals and market expectations of cities with falling house prices by reducing monthly mortgage payments, and play a role in supporting the market.
Shell Research Institute also believes that from the overall point of view, the current mortgage interest rate level continues to be at a historical low, the 70 large and medium-sized cities house price index has bottomed, and in the later period, with the repair of the market, house prices have gradually stabilized, and it is expected that the first home loan interest rate will remain stable or slightly raised. (End)