Chinese banks may raise mortgage rates in tightening drive, analysts say

Mainland Chinese banks are expected to increase mortgages rates in response to local governments’ ongoing measures to curb housing speculation and cut lending to home buyers in order to cut financial leverage, analysts say.

“Strengthened tightening measures to cool off housing inflation would play a key role in banks raising mortgage lending rates to align with a tougher housing policy across major cities, that is showing no sign of loosening,” said Zhao Yarui, a senior researcher at Bank of Communications in Shanghai.

Zhao anticipated that banks could opt to raise mortgages rates in the coming months to reflect the housing policy, even as the People’s Bank of China refrained from raising benchmark interest rates for fear of choking domestic economic growth.

Major cities including Beijing and Shanghai have increased down payment requirements, strengthened controls on selling prices, restricted purchases by non-locals and second-home buyers and cracked down on residential flats built on commercial and office land to curb speculation and irregularities.

Average mortgages rates for first-time home buyers rose to 4.73 per cent in May, up from 4.52 per cent in April, according to data from financial data provider Rong360. The 4.73 per cent rate would have represented a 6.29 per cent increase from a year earlier, and was a mere 3 per cent discount on the benchmark rate set by the central bank.

Previously, first-time home buyers can enjoy a maximum discount of 15 per cent in cities like Shanghai, due to concessions from authorities which supported buyers that were end-users and not speculators.