A few days ago, the interest rate on personal housing loans of the housing provident fund was lowered by 0.25 percentage points. In order to further understand the relevant situation of the interest rate reduction, the relevant person in charge of the Housing Provident Fund Supervision Department of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development answered questions from reporters.
Q: After the introduction of this policy, it has attracted widespread attention from the society, please introduce the relevant background of the reduction of the interest rate of personal housing loans of the housing provident fund.
Answer: The housing provident fund has long provided low-interest housing loans to low- and middle-income groups to meet the housing needs of residents, which is welcomed and concerned by the masses. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, our ministry has implemented the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, actively played the role of the housing provident fund, and solved the housing problem of depositors. Since 2012, a total of 12.9 trillion yuan of personal housing loans have been issued to the housing provident fund, and the balance of loans has increased from 2.7 trillion yuan to 7.8 trillion yuan in 2023, supporting nearly 50 million depositors to achieve a place to live, of which more than 80% are for the purchase of their first home. In recent years, the housing provident fund personal housing loans have continued to maintain stable growth year after year, with the loan balance increasing by nearly 7% in 2023, and the new loans issued increasing by more than 24% year-on-year, which strongly supports the housing consumption of depositors.
In order to increase the support for depositors' loans, in accordance with the relevant deployment of the State Council, our ministry has actively studied and included the reduction of the interest rate of individual housing loans from the housing provident fund into the package of work to promote the stable and healthy development of the real estate market, and jointly promoted the introduction and implementation of policies with the People's Bank of China. In order to implement the policy in place, on May 17, our ministry issued the "Notice on Doing a Good Job in the Reduction of the Interest Rate of Personal Housing Loans of the Housing Provident Fund" to guide the local housing provident fund management institutions to do a good job in implementation, and effectively let the majority of depositors enjoy this policy of benefiting the people.
Q: How much benefit can the depositors of the housing provident fund loan get from the reduction of the interest rate of the housing provident fund personal housing loan?
Answer: The interest rate of the housing provident fund loan was reduced by 0.25 percentage points. After the adjustment, the interest rates of the first set of personal housing provident fund loans for less than 5 years (including 5 years) and more than 5 years are 2.35% and 2.85% respectively, and the interest rates of the second set of personal housing provident fund loans for less than 5 years (including 5 years) and more than 5 years are 2.775% and 3.325% respectively, which provides greater support for depositors to solve housing problems.
The most direct beneficiaries of the reduction in loan interest rates are housing provident fund lenders. Taking the first housing provident fund personal housing loan with an amount of 1 million yuan and a term of 30 years as an example, if you choose the equal principal and interest repayment method, the monthly payment will be reduced from 4270.16 yuan to 4135.57 yuan, a decrease of about 135 yuan, and the total interest expense will be reduced by 48,500 yuan. The benefits for buyers are substantial.
The scope of the loan interest rate adjustment includes both the newly issued housing provident fund personal housing loans and the existing housing provident fund personal housing loans. For personal housing provident fund loans that have been disbursed before May 18, 2024, the new interest rate will be implemented from January 1, 2025. New personal housing provident fund loans issued after May 18, 2024 (inclusive) will be directly executed according to the adjusted new interest rate. We will guide the urban housing provident fund management center to do a good job in policy convergence in accordance with the regulations to ensure that depositors can enjoy the preferential policies as soon as possible.
Q: The housing provident fund has played an important role in supporting new citizens, young people, and wage earners to solve their housing problems. Can you tell us about the initiatives you have taken and the results you have achieved?
A: In recent years, we have adhered to the simultaneous development of rental and purchase, actively played the role of the housing provident fund, strengthened the coordination with the housing market and housing security policies, and supported depositors to solve housing problems. The first is to highlight the key points of support and support new citizens, young people, and families with many children to solve housing problems. Guide local governments to increase the intensity of rental withdrawal, support families with many children who rent housing to withdraw housing provident funds according to actual rent expenditures, and encourage large cities to support new citizens and young people to withdraw the full amount of the housing provident fund paid monthly to pay rent. For families with many children who purchase their first home, all localities will appropriately provide policy support such as increasing the loan amount according to the actual situation. In recent years, the amount and number of people withdrawing from the housing provident fund have grown rapidly, and more than 15 million new citizens, young people and other contributors have been supported to withdraw the housing provident fund to pay rent every year, of which more than 80% are young people under the age of 40. The second is to support depositors to rent and purchase affordable housing. Since the launch of the allotment of affordable housing, we have studied policies in a timely manner and stepped up efforts to support the purchase of affordable housing by wage earners. In terms of supporting affordable rental housing, we will increase the amount of rental withdrawal, increase the frequency of rental withdrawal, and support depositors who rent affordable rental housing to withdraw housing provident funds according to their actual rent expenditures. Some urban provident fund centers have cooperated with affordable rental housing operators to provide preferential facilities such as rent discounts and deposit reductions for depositors, which are well received by depositors.
Q: Everyone is very concerned about the safety of the loan funds of the housing provident fund, what effective measures have been taken in the prevention and control of loan risks? At the same time, how to provide convenient and efficient services to depositors?
Answer: In recent years, the asset quality of housing provident fund loans has been relatively good and safe. On the one hand, the depositors are trustworthy, on the other hand, we adhere to the bottom-line thinking, strengthen standardized management, take multiple measures to improve the risk prevention and control ability of housing provident fund loans, urge all localities to standardize loan management and policy implementation, strengthen the risk management and control of personal housing loan overdue, and the loan overdue rate has always remained low. Fully realize the sharing of credit data with the People's Bank of China to provide support for the risk prevention and control of housing provident fund loans. A three-level linkage of "ministries, provinces and cities" and an online and offline housing provident fund loan risk prevention and control system have been initially established to guard the "money bags" of depositors.
At the same time, we continue to improve the efficiency of housing provident fund services. Promote cross-departmental, cross-level, and cross-regional sharing of data, so that data can run more and the masses can run less errands, so as to further facilitate the masses and improve their satisfaction. The housing provident fund loan business in various localities has reduced links, requirements, and time limits to achieve "handheld office" and "online office", and where conditions permit, it has also realized "full online office". Focusing on the urgency, difficulties and expectations of depositors in the cross-regional business handling, promoting the coordinated handling of housing provident funds in different places, realizing the "bright code can be handled" for housing provident fund personal certification matters, and the "cross-provincial general handling" of 13 high-frequency service matters, these measures will promote the construction of a unified national market. This year, we will also implement the State Council's deployment of "doing one thing efficiently", actively promote the work tasks involving the housing provident fund, and better help optimize the business environment.
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