Transactions being carried out at VPBank in Hanoi (Photo: VNA)
HCM City (VNA) - With housing demand remaining strong, banks areoptimistic that 2017 will be a big year for mortgages.
The HCM City Real Estate Association (HoREA) said last year mortgages worth 70trillion VND (3.07 billion VND) have been taken out from banks in the city.
According to the 2016 financial report by the National Financial SupervisionCommission, while credit flowing into the property market rose by only 12 percentin 2016 compared to 28 percent the previous year, consumer credit rose by 39percent with more than half of the loans used for buying or repairing homes.
This indicates there is massive demand for housing loans.
Traditionally, the mortgage market is busy around Tet (Lunar NewYear) as people usually borrow to buy or renovate houses. Lenders competefiercely for a share of this pie, offering cheap loans.
In January, Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Bank (Sacombank) earmarked 3 trillionVND for mortgages at 8.5 percent interest.
Asia Commercial Bank offered home loans at 7.5 percent, while Vietnam InternationalBank offered 7.8 percent for the first six months.
Dau tu (VietnamInvestment Review) newspaper quoted several banks as saying that mortgages areexpected to surge due to rising demand from middle-income customers.
Truong Dinh Long, Deputy General Director of Orient Commercial Bank, told DauTu that with more than 50,000 couples marrying every year in the city,demand for housing, especially low-priced, would surge this year.
But it is unlikely that lenders will be capable of competing on interest rates.
Circular 06/2016/TT-NHNN, which came into effect last January, reduces theratio of short-term deposits that can be used for medium- and long-term loansfrom 60 percent to 40 percent. The property sector is set to take a hit fromthis since mortgages usually have a medium- or long-term tenor.
Besides, the deposit interest rates are inching up, making it harder forlenders to lower lending rates, especially for consumer loans.
Dau tu quoted Long as saying that if deposit interest rates keep headingnorth, lending rates too would rise.
But a senior Sacombank executive said lending rates would not change much thisyear.-VNA
It is necessary for housing developers, contractors, banks and State agencies to cooperate in disclosing information about real estate projects to avoid panicking buyers, experts have said.
HCM City’s Party Secretary Dinh La Thang has urged local authorities to consider implementing a social housing policy that has helped attract more investors in Binh Duong province.
Low-cost housing projects planned by the municipal administration should have the same quality of construction and infrastructure as their commercial counterparts.
The real estate sector reported a reduction of 1.45 trillion VND (63.6 million USD) in inventory in February from December, 2016 to an estimated 29.6 trillion VND (1.3 billion USD).
Ho Chi Minh City needs better cooperation among the State, developers, builders, material suppliers and banks to improve the local property market, the HCM City Real Estate Association has said.
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Transactions being carried out at VPBank in Hanoi (Photo: VNA) 
