Real estate businesses launch policies to support customers borrowing to buy houses at the end of the year

Real estate businesses launch policies to support customers borrowing to buy houses at the end of the year

Home loan interest rates are considered low. However, after the preferential period, floating interest rates will increase. To overcome this, many real estate businesses have launched interest rate support policies to stimulate home buyers.

Concerned about interest rates

In early October 2024, Ms. Ngo Thi Lan, residing in Di An City, Binh Duong Province, working at a logistics company in Song Than Industrial Park, was looking to buy a 68 m2 apartment, priced at VND 42 million/m2 in a project near her workplace. Although she only had enough to pay 50% of the house's value, Ms. Lan decided to take out a bank loan to complete the transaction.

With stimulus packages supporting interest rates, real estate businesses expect a vibrant market.

“Working with many banks associated with the project, I know that the current loan interest rate is only over 7%, but this rate is only fixed for 6-12 months. After that, the floating interest rate can exceed 12%, making it difficult for the family to manage. We can only balance at an interest rate of 8%/year because there are many living expenses and education for the children,” Ms. Lan shared.

Mr. Doan Van Huy, residing in Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City, also faced similar difficulties. In 2023, he sold his old apartment for VND 2.7 billion and borrowed from the bank to buy a new house for VND 5 billion. Initially, the interest rate was 8%/year, but after 12 months of the fixed period, the floating interest rate increased to 13.2%.

“From having to pay 20 million VND/month, now I have to pay more than 30 million VND, causing a lot of reduction in family expenses,” said Mr. Huy.

Currently, banks are applying preferential interest rates for home loans. SeABank offers a fixed interest rate of 5.5% for the first 12 months, then floating at about 11%/year. TPBank applies 7.8%/year for the first 24 months; if you choose a fixed package of 36 months, the interest rate is 8.8%/year, then it can go up to 12%/year.

VPBank also launched many incentive packages: 8.1% for the first 6 months, 9.2% for the first 12 months and 10.6% for the first 24 months, with a margin of 3.5%. The prepayment penalty fee gradually decreases from 4% in the first year to 0% from the 5th year.

Sacombank and ACB also have similar preferential loan packages, with fixed interest rates of 6.5-7.5% for the first 6 to 24 months. After the preferential period, the floating interest rates of these banks range from 10.5-11.7%/year.

Mr. Nguyen Hoang, a real estate expert in Ho Chi Minh City, said that the current interest rate is the lowest in many years and is very attractive. However, he warned that this incentive is only applicable for a short time, after which the interest rate will return to high levels, causing customers to bear more financial pressure.

Businesses launch stimulus policies

Faced with concerns from many customers about interest rates when buying a house, since the beginning of September, many real estate businesses have launched policies to support interest rates on home loans at their projects to stimulate customers to "put down money" to buy a house.

For example, the Japanese joint venture Cosmos Inita – TT Capital – Koterasu Group announced interest rate support for customers buying houses at the TT AVIO apartment project in Di An City, Binh Duong Province. Specifically, the company will support an interest rate of 6.7% for 3 years, instead of 12 months for customers. In addition, to reduce the burden of payment, the company also offers a flexible “payment negotiation” policy, by which customers can choose the time and amount of monthly payment.

Accordingly, in 3 years of progress payments, in addition to fixed installments, customers can directly propose payment schedules to the investor. Buyers are free to choose: no payment, small payment or large payment according to the percentage amount in the period. This helps customers flexibly allocate cash flow and adjust payment time according to each person's financial capacity without being forced into a certain pattern, making them much more comfortable, especially in the current difficult economic context.

According to the published information, TT AVIO apartments are financially supported by VietinBank up to 70% of the property value, with a loan term of 20-25 years. For example, an apartment priced at 1.23 billion VND with a loan of 70% of the value, with a preferential interest rate of 6 to 6.7% within 3 years, each month the customer will pay both principal and interest of about 8-9 million VND/month, the outstanding balance will gradually decrease over time.

Tran Anh Group said that the company is selling a townhouse project called Phuc An Ashita Urban Area in Binh Duong province. To support customers in borrowing to buy a house, the company will support Vietcombank loans with a fixed interest rate of 5.9% for 6 months, 6.9% for a fixed package of 12 months and 7.9% for a fixed interest package of 24 months. In addition, the principal is exempted for 48 months and the loan term is up to 30 years.

Gamuda said it is offering a policy to support customers who want to borrow money to buy a house at the Eaton Park apartment project in Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City with a fixed interest rate of 7%/3 years for customers.

Khai Hoan Land Group also said that it currently has a policy to support customers buying apartments at Khai Hoan Prime project in Nha Be district, Ho Chi Minh City with flexible payment support divided into 27 installments in 2 years, only 1% per month to help reduce financial pressure, bank loan principal interest paid 0 VND in 24 months, meaning customers will not have to pay interest or principal to the bank within 24 months...

Mr. Le Hoang Chau, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA), said that the problem is very clear: real estate businesses have begun to adjust selling prices to suit customers' financial needs and home ownership needs. However, customers with real housing needs have very limited savings, so they are forced to choose bank loans. However, the interest rate is initially low but then increases, making customers afraid of having to pay interest and principal every month, while their income does not increase.

“The fact that businesses have begun to change their loan interest support policies for their customers is effectively solving the problem of stimulating customers to buy houses. This is a bright spot to help liquidity in the fourth quarter of the market,” said Mr. Chau.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/batdongsan/doanh-nghiep-dia-oc-tung-chinh-sach-ho-tro-khach-hang-vay-mua-nha-cuoi-nam-d228787.html