Following the preferential period, floating interest rates can climb to nearly 17 percent per year, adding pressure on homebuyers.

The banking sector’s credit policy aims to ensure that capital reaches the right fields, at the right time, for the right borrowers and purposes, at reasonable costs. 

The State Bank of Vietnam has asked credit institutions to prioritize funding for manufacturing, exports, high-tech industries, supporting industries, agriculture, innovation, social housing, rental housing, essential infrastructure, nationally important and priority projects, as well as growth-driving sectors. At the same time, credit growth must go hand in hand with risk controls.

Property lending, particularly in highly speculative areas, is not among the sectors prioritized under credit policies.

As a result, rising bank lending rates are making homebuyers more cautious. To attract customers, many developers have been forced to roll out financing support packages for homebuyers.

According to a representative of a major property developer, the firm provides interest-rate support for homebuyers for up to 30 months, equivalent to an annual interest rate of 12 percent. Customers are responsible for any interest charged above that rate.

“In essence, interest-rate support is also money factored into the selling price of a home. Customers who pay the full purchase price upfront can receive discounts of up to 10-25 percent. Some major developers even offer grace periods on principal repayments of up to 10 years, but these packages are only available to loyal customers,” said a representative of a Hanoi-based property developer.

Big 4 mortgage rates no longer low

A survey found that the highest listed mortgage rates for property purchases secured by collateral are 10.8 percent a year at MB and MSB, 10 percent at SHB, 12.3 percent at VPBank, 12 percent at ACB and Sacombank, 12.03 percent at TPBank, 11.4 percent at VIB, 10.6 percent at HDBank, 10.5 percent at Agribank, and 9.5 percent at BIDV, Vietcombank and VietinBank.

However, the actual rates offered to customers may be higher than the listed rates, depending on their profiles and loan conditions.

A BIDV credit officer told VietNamNet that the bank is currently offering property purchase loans at an interest rate of 12.8 percent a year for the first three years. “After that, the rate will float depending on market movements, but will be 3-4 percentage points higher than the promotional rate.”

This means that if the post-promotional rate is 3-4 percentage points higher than 12.8 percent, borrowers could face an interest rate of around 15.8-16.8 percent a year. This is a significant burden for homebuyers who have not made adequate preparations for their repayment plans.

Currently, banks offer different mortgage rates depending on the customer. At SeABank, fixed mortgage rates for regular customers are 8.5 percent a year for a three-month term, 12.5 percent for 18 months and as high as 13 percent for 24 months.

However, customers purchasing property in affiliated projects within the bank’s ecosystem can access significantly lower rates, with discounts of around 0.5-1.05 percentage points. Similarly, after the promotional period, loans will be subject to floating rates based on the bank’s base rate plus a prescribed margin.

Meanwhile, fixed rates for the first 12 months on actual property purchase loans are currently 11.5 percent a year at MSB, 12 percent at MB and 13-14 percent at Vietcombank.

Compared with bank lending rates a month ago, rates have risen significantly. At MSB, for example, the mortgage rate was 10.49 percent a year a month ago but has now reached 11.5 percent.

According to financial and securities expert Tran Phuong Thao, actual lending rates at many joint-stock commercial banks are lower than those at the Big 4. However, limited credit quotas mean getting a loan approved is not easy.

Moreover, the Big 4 banks are under pressure to arrange capital for nationally important projects and priority sectors, leaving limited room for preferential lending to commercial property projects.

Meanwhile, overnight interbank lending rates have also shown signs of a slight increase. On August 20, the overnight rate stood at 3.01 percent a year, with trading volume of nearly VND914 trillion. By August 22, the overnight rate had edged up to 3.28 percent, with trading volume exceeding VND769 trillion.

Notably, the two-week interbank rate rose sharply from 5.65 percent to 6.12 percent a year. These are the two maturities with the largest trading volumes in recent sessions.

Tuan Nguyen