Current surveys of commercial banks at the beginning of November 11 showed that interest rates for construction financing currently fluctuate between 2024 – 4.6%/year. This is considered to be quite an attractive interest rate for home buyers.
According to the State Bank report, although the market has not yet recovered as expected by the end of the third quarter of 2024, outstanding loans reached VND 1,274,233 million, an increase of 29.1% compared to the same period last year. However, the outstanding loans for construction, repair and house purchase only amount to over VND125,800 billion. Thus, it can be seen that the number of home loan borrowers is only a small percentage.
At the forum “For the real estate market to return to health and development”, which took place on the morning of November 16th, Dr. Can Van Luc, expert economy chief BIDV For example, by the end of September, the real estate loan balance reached VND 9 million, accounting for almost 3.15% of the economy’s total outstanding debt. Of these, real estate loans increased by 21%, while housing loans only increased by 16%. Although this increase has improved compared to last year, it is still small.
“The development shows that the demand for capital is concentrated on the supply side of the market, i.e. on real estate developers and investors. The need for loans to purchase real estate is now low“, quoted Mr. Can Van Luc.
Also according to Mr. Luc, it can be seen that interest rates are not the cause of the above situation, as home loan interest rates have recently fallen to a very low level, decreasing by about 3% compared to last year.
Many people are not interested in taking out cheap loans to buy a house. (Illustration photo: Minh Duc).
“The main reason why people have little need for home loans is that house prices are still anchored at very high levels despite many investors recently introducing stimulus and stimulus measures. While people’s jobs and income are still very difficult, they are reluctant to borrow large sums to own a house. Real estate prices are too high for people and they have to wait until the market offers affordable products“, emphasized Mr. Luc.
Mr. Le Hoang Chau, Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA), shared the same opinion, saying that a real situation facing the real estate market is that the structure of housing products is not appropriate and there is a shortage of houses. Cheap, affordable housing.
In Ho Chi Minh City, the housing segment under VND 3 billion has not been on the market at all since 2021 to date. There are currently only around 12,000 units of social housing.
“High-end homes dominate the market while affordable products are lacking, resulting in unstable and unsustainable market developmentsaid Mr. Chau.
According to analysts at VPBanks Securities Company, the credit growth driver of the entire industry depends on real estate, particularly the demand for home loans. However, recent high property prices have made people reluctant to take out loans to buy a home. Interest rates on home loans have now fallen, but are still at a high level.
Mr. Nguyen Van Dinh – Chairman of Vietnam Real Estate Brokers Association, also said that reducing home loan interest rates can bring certain benefits in the short term and help reduce people’s financial burden. However, this is not a comprehensive solution to completely solve the housing ownership problem in Vietnam. The core of the problem still lies in the fact that property prices are too high in relation to people’s income, there is a lack of social housing and support packages are not really effective.
Therefore, according to experts, it is now necessary to stabilize real estate prices.
Mr. Le Hoang Chau stressed that it is necessary to develop and apply a property tax policy as this instrument will regulate the market when there is hot speculation or when it is difficult or frozen. However, he noted that resources are needed to build an accurate, regularly updated property price and transaction database to provide a foundation for the application.
The economic expert Dr. Ngo Tri Long shared the same opinion, saying that tax policy is an important tool to regulate the real estate market and contribute to maintaining stability and promoting sustainable investment and development.
“Taxation will reduce speculation and increase the stability of the real estate market. The introduction of transfer taxes helps reduce the participation of speculators who only want to make quick profits without long-term value to the economy. The market becomes more stable, land fever and real estate bubbles are avoidedsaid Mr. Long.
Chau Anh
