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cailianshe news, september 2 (reporter guo zishuo)the interest rate spread between new and old mortgage loans continues to widen, and the investment yield of wealth management products is lower than expected. the demand for early repayment of mortgage loans remains strong. in this context, some existing mortgage users in guangzhou recently reported that the icbc app requires that the early repayment amount start at at least 50,000 yuan.

many existing mortgage users whose location is shown as "guangzhou" said on social platforms that they applied for early mortgage repayment on the icbc app, but were rejected because the starting amount did not meet the requirements. according to screenshots of the page published by some users, the icbc app system shows "if you choose partial settlement as the scheduled repayment method, the amount you enter must be greater than 50,000 yuan."

the latest system settings at the end of august require early repayments of less than 50,000 yuan to be processed offline

in this regard, cailianshe reporter learned from a mortgage center of icbc in guangzhou that the news was true. the staff revealed: "(the above adjustment) was launched around the end of august. users need to pay more than 50,000 yuan to apply for early loan repayment online. this is a new setting of the system." the staff added that if the amount of early mortgage repayment is less than 50,000 yuan, the borrower needs to go to the offline branch to handle the early loan repayment procedures according to the procedure.

not only that, a mortgage user of icbc revealed that he made an appointment to repay his mortgage early through the app today. although the app showed that the earliest time was two months later, it did not support the selection of november, and the earliest repayment date he could choose was december 1.

the aforementioned staff member added that currently, the time from application to deduction for early mortgage repayment offline is about 60 days, "which is already one month faster than the 90 days at the beginning of the year." according to a review, the early repayment waiting period of many banks currently ranges from 1 month to 3 months. a mortgage user revealed that he applied for an early repayment of 100,000 yuan today, but because the repayment amount was large, the system scheduled it to february 2025.

judging from the interim report data, the demand for early repayment of existing mortgage users remains strong. according to the choice data of east wealth, the balance of personal housing loans of 42 listed companies in the first half of the year reached 34.076 trillion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1.97%. among them, the balance of personal housing loans of the six state-owned banks in the first half of the year totaled 26.12 trillion yuan, accounting for 77% of the total balance of personal housing loans of the 42 listed banks. in the first half of the year, the balance of personal housing mortgage loans of the six major banks alone decreased by 654.759 billion yuan year-on-year. excluding the postal savings bank, which has increased in scale, the balance of personal housing mortgage loans of the other five state-owned banks decreased by 692.306 billion yuan.

the latest semi-annual report of the industrial and commercial bank of china shows that the balance of personal housing loans was 6.165 trillion yuan at the end of june, a net decrease of 123.092 billion yuan from 6.288 trillion yuan at the end of december last year.

at the same time, banks are also facing the challenge of declining quality of mortgage loan assets.

cailianshe reporters read the interim report and learned that chongqing bank's personal housing loan non-performing rate increased by 0.31 percentage points from the beginning of the year. citic bank's personal housing loan non-performing rate increased by 0.21 percentage points from the end of last year to 0.71%. china merchants bank's personal housing loan non-performing rate in the first half of the year was 0.4%, up 0.03 percentage points from the end of last year; the loan rate under watch was 1.16%, up 0.21 percentage points from the end of last year; and the overdue loan rate was 0.69%, up 0.15 percentage points from the end of last year.

in the market, there have been discussions about converting existing personal mortgage loans into mortgages and adjusting the interest rates of existing mortgage loans. recently, there have been reports that the relevant departments are considering further lowering the interest rates of existing mortgage loans and allowing existing mortgage loans of up to rmb 38 trillion to be converted into mortgages in order to reduce residents' debt burden and boost consumption.

however, wang liang, president of china merchants bank, stated at the bank's 2024 mid-term performance exchange meeting today that china merchants bank has not received any relevant opinions from the regulatory authorities regarding the conversion of existing personal mortgage loans into mortgages, and the relevant regulatory authorities have not sought the opinions of commercial banks on this matter. wang liang said: "this policy has not yet been confirmed. if the relevant policy is introduced, it may have a certain negative impact on the existing mortgage interest rates in the banking industry."

in may 2024, the lower limit of the interest rate for newly issued mortgage loans nationwide will be cancelled. according to cicc's calculations: "according to the data from the central bank, as of june, the interest rate for newly issued mortgage loans was 3.45%. if the lpr cut in july is taken into account, the new interest rate is estimated to be around 3.35%, which is 62bp lower than 3.97% in december 2023, while the interest rate for existing mortgage loans has only been reduced by 35bp. we estimate that the interest rate spread between the interest rate for existing mortgage loans and the interest rate for new mortgage loans has returned to a high level of about 60-70bp, and most of the repricing will be in early 2025. therefore, the mortgage early repayment rate is still at a high level of around 14%, and there may be room for using consumer and business loans to replace mortgages."

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