According to reports, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development recently jointly deployed with the People’s Bank of China and the China Banking Regulatory Commission to standardize the financing behavior of house purchase, and explicitly prohibited real estate development enterprises and real estate intermediaries from providing down payment financing for house purchase in violation of regulations; It is strictly forbidden for internet financial institutions and microfinance companies to provide "down payment loans" and other home purchase financing products or services in violation of regulations; It is strictly forbidden for real estate intermediaries, internet finance institutions and microfinance companies to provide off-site real estate allocation in violation of regulations; It is strictly forbidden to misappropriate personal comprehensive consumption loans and other funds for buying houses.
This is a microcosm of the recent investigation by many central and local regulatory authorities into the illegal inflow of funds into the property market. Previously, the banking supervision departments in many places have taken action to strictly investigate the misappropriation of consumer loan funds to pay the down payment for house purchase. In the interview, the reporter of Economic Information Daily found that under the high pressure of supervision, the momentum of bank funds illegally entering the property market has slowed down, but there are still products of unlicensed financial institutions, intermediary companies and real estate developers appearing in the market in a more hidden form.
The disguised form of "down payment" is more subtle.
Under the background of real estate regulation and upgrading, since the beginning of this year, the regulatory authorities have strictly controlled the illegal inflow of funds into the property market. Especially in recent months, short-term funds from banks and some unlicensed financial institutions have gradually flowed into the property market in disguise, and the supervision has continued to increase. However, the reporter of the Economic Information Daily found in the interview that in the face of many buyers’ urgent demand for housing funds, there are still a small number of "down payment" products on the market, but their forms are more subtle.
In the last week, the reporter consulted a number of real estate agencies as buyers. When expressing that the down payment funds were "almost", most agencies bluntly said that they could not help solve the funding problem at present, and said that the company clearly stipulated that they should not assist customers in handling credit loans and consumer loans.
However, there are still a small number of intermediary staff who say that they can help. "Generally, loans within 1 million yuan are relatively easy to solve. If you don’t have a house, you can apply for a consumer loan of about 300,000 yuan in several cooperative banks, and the repayment period is up to 5 years. " An intermediary staff member bluntly said, "At present, the bank is strict about this kind of loan, and it is not easy to approve it now, but we can still help to think of some ways."
On the whole, under the high pressure of supervision, it is more and more difficult for buyers to use the relatively cheap funds of banks to make up the down payment. In this case, the channels for some loan companies and financing guarantee companies to flow into the property market are still "open". A staff member of a financing guarantee company told the Economic Information Daily that the company has cooperation agreements with some banks to cooperate with banks to lend money every year, but the loans will enter the credit information system. He introduced that the annual interest rate of lending through the platform is 5.4%, and a single bank can borrow up to 700,000 yuan, and a few borrowers can borrow up to 2 million yuan, and no collateral is needed below 2 million yuan. "If the loan is used for consumption or decoration, it can be done." He said.
At the same time, some intermediaries can still provide the so-called advance fund service, but the cost is relatively high. "The specific operation is to mortgage the house to our company first, and we will provide the advance payment, then go to the bank to apply for the mortgage loan after the house is transferred, and then pay the advance payment. Generally, the term of such advances is less than half a year, and the interest rate is almost 7% annualized. " An intermediary staff member said.
"We can also help you cash out large credit card loans through guarantee companies, but you need to charge an intermediary fee." The staff of the above-mentioned intermediary agency said, "Now the investigation is relatively strict, and it is basically impossible to succeed if you handle it yourself, but we can help with the materials." It is understood that this kind of loan has a long life, reaching 30 years, and the loan amount is 500,000 yuan to 700,000 yuan.
In addition, according to many interviews with reporters, the situation of down payment by real estate developers still exists. In some remote suburban buildings in Beijing, buyers need to pay only 10% of the down payment, and the rest of the down payment is paid by developers first. "About 80 square meters, the down payment for two houses is less than 400,000 yuan. You can pay half first, and the other half will be paid by the developer, and then you can pay it off before the end of next year. There is no interest and no handling fee, which is equivalent to the down payment in two years." Some intermediary staff said that this kind of real estate is generally bought by fewer people, so there are not many people who do this.
The risk of off-exchange default of high-interest funds is greater.
Since the beginning of this year, the real estate control policy has become stricter, and the banking industry has continuously reduced the scale of personal housing mortgage loans. According to the semi-annual data of a number of A-share listed banks, the growth rate of housing mortgage loans declined in the first half of the year, and the proportion of new mortgages in personal loans also declined compared with the end of last year. According to the data of the central bank, as of the end of September this year, the medium-and long-term loans of the household sector, mainly composed of personal housing mortgage loans, increased by 26.2% year-on-year, and the year-on-year growth rate was 4.6 percentage points lower than that at the end of last quarter.
It is worth noting that while the growth rate of medium and long-term loans in the household sector has dropped, the growth rate of short-term loans in the household sector has increased significantly. According to the data of the central bank, at the end of September this year, the growth rate of short-term loans in the household sector reached 38.11% year-on-year, which was 17.85 percentage points higher than that at the beginning of the year. In the first three quarters, the short-term loans of the household sector increased by 1,492.6 billion yuan, 942.8 billion yuan more than the same period of last year, nearly three times the increase in the same period of last year, and 1.5 times the increase in the whole year of last year. Jiang Chao, chief macro analyst of Haitong Securities, said that since the second half of last year, the amount of bank loans has been gradually restricted, and some residents have completed housing loans or borrowed short-term consumer loans, resulting in high growth of short-term loans for residents.
Xiong Qiyue, a researcher at the Institute of International Finance of the Bank of China, said that from the experience of developed countries, personal loans are an important asset type for commercial banks to obtain stable interest margin under the condition of interest rate marketization. Compared with the leading international banks, the proportion and pricing of personal loans in China’s banking industry still have some room to rise, and the development of personal loans should become an important direction for the transformation and upgrading of the banking industry in the future. "But at present, the scale of domestic personal loans is growing too fast, and banks have herding behavior of centralized allocation of personal loans. A large amount of funds poured into the personal loan market, which does not rule out the existence of irregularities that change the use of loans, which is obviously not conducive to the healthy development of the personal loan market as a whole. " He said.
In fact, in addition to the funds of the banking system that can be counted, there are also a large number of funds from Internet financial institutions, private lending institutions and guarantee companies flowing into the property market, which in disguise helps residents to buy houses with leverage, and the risks here cannot be ignored. The report on China’s deleveraging process released by the National Finance and Development Laboratory of China Academy of Social Sciences and the National Balance Sheet Research Center points out that due to the different nature of consumer loans and mortgage loans, their interest rates and risks are correspondingly greater than those of mortgage loans. At present, many consumer credits are provided in the form of cash loans to users, especially unsecured and unsecured credit loans provided by Internet financial platforms, which enlarges the probability of possible default in the future. The potential risks caused by this should be paid enough attention by the regulatory authorities.
"Some unlicensed institutions have higher lending rates. In this case, if individuals leverage faster, once the market fluctuates, the risk of bad debts is higher. Moreover, such off-exchange funds are more hidden and generally not included in the official credit record. Once the off-exchange funds default, they will definitely affect the funds in the banking system, which will easily lead to greater risks. " An industry insider told the Economic Information Daily reporter.
Regulatory upgrade "multi-faceted, multi-round"
The risk of residents’ disguised leverage has been closely watched by the regulatory authorities. Under the background of repeated violations, the supervision is constantly upgrading.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the People’s Bank of China, and the China Banking Regulatory Commission have jointly deployed to standardize the financing behavior of house purchase and strengthen the anti-money laundering work in the real estate sector. Including prohibiting real estate development enterprises and real estate intermediaries from providing down payment financing for house purchase in violation of regulations; It is strictly forbidden for internet financial institutions and microfinance companies to provide "down payment loans" and other home purchase financing products or services in violation of regulations; It is strictly forbidden for real estate intermediaries, internet finance institutions and microfinance companies to provide off-site real estate allocation in violation of regulations; It is strictly forbidden to misappropriate personal comprehensive consumption loans and other funds for buying houses.
The three ministries and commissions also require all localities to intensify investigation and punishment of illegal enterprises and institutions. And include illegal housing enterprises and intermediaries in the list of serious illegal and untrustworthy enterprises; Internet financial institutions that violate the rules should be included in the key targets of special rectification of Internet financial risks; The illegal provision of financing by Internet financial institutions, microfinance companies and other institutions shall be entered into the credit information system according to law.
Earlier, Xiao Yuanqi, director of the Prudential Regulation Bureau of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, said that it would strictly investigate the misappropriation of consumer loan funds, crack down on "down payment loans", learn from the lessons of the US subprime mortgage crisis, prevent the leverage ratio of residents from rising too fast, and prevent the risk of real estate bubbles.
"The China Banking Regulatory Commission has dispatched institutions to carry out risk investigation, strengthen standardized management and accountability, and strictly investigate the illegal entry of personal consumption loans into the real estate market." Relevant persons from the China Banking Regulatory Commission introduced. Banking regulatory bureaus in Beijing, Shenzhen and other places have issued a notice in October, requesting to investigate the flow of consumer loan funds. At this stage, banks are organizing branches within their jurisdiction to conduct investigations as required.
In fact, since the beginning of 2016, China has carried out several rounds of strict investigations on real estate agencies, online lending institutions, banks and other loan-related institutions, and resolutely cracked down on violations and speculation. Last August, seven ministries and commissions, including the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the China Banking Regulatory Commission, jointly issued the Opinions on Strengthening the Management of Real Estate Agents to Promote the Healthy Development of the Industry, requiring real estate agents not to provide or cooperate with other institutions to provide illegal financial products and services such as "down payment loans".
In this regard, Zhang Dawei, chief analyst of Zhongyuan Real Estate, said that this means that real estate regulation is deepening. On the one hand, through administrative means such as restricting purchases and sales, supervision is strengthened, and a long-term mechanism of renting and selling is established to reduce the speculative profit space. On the other hand, the financial level focuses on reducing leverage, controlling the source of investment funds, and promoting real estate to return to residential property and reducing the risk of bubbles.
Dong Ximiao, a senior researcher at Chongyang Financial Research Institute of Renmin University of China, also said that the regulatory authorities will continue to pay close attention to and strictly control the financial demand for speculative housing purchases. Banks need to continue to crack down on investment demand and cut off financial supply in this area.
Jiang Chao also said that in the future, real estate sales will continue to cool down, and the regulators will strictly check the short-term loans of residents to real estate, coupled with the limited amount of bank loans, it is expected that the growth rate of residential loans will tend to slow down.