A survey of real estate lending interest rates at some commercial banks shows that the current interest rate level has significant differentiation between bank groups, in which the Big4 group raised interest rates to approach 14%.
In the group of state-owned banks, researching at some branches of Vietcombank in Ho Chi Minh City, the lowest real estate purchase loan interest rate is from 9.6% per year. Compared to the same period last year, when the home purchase loan interest rate at this bank was only about 6% fixed for 12 months and 7% for 24 months, the current level has increased significantly.
VietinBank has also raised the 24-month fixed real estate purchase loan interest rate to more than 12% per year. BIDV raised the real estate lending interest rate to a minimum threshold of 9.7% in the first 6 months, 10% for 12 months and up to 13.5% for 18 months. Agribank applies a lower level in the short term, about 8% for 6 months, 8.5% for 12 months, but also increased to nearly 9.8% if fixed for 18 months.
Meanwhile, banks outside the Big4 group have a clear differentiation in real estate lending interest rates, often designing different preferential interest rates depending on project quality, product type and credit risk. Although initial interest rates are quite low compared to the state-owned bank group, after a period of incentives, banks outside the Big4 group have a fairly large floating band.
Some banks list preferential interest rates for home and land loans from 9.5 - 11.5%/year, depending on the preferential period, then apply an additional margin of about 2-3% for all terms.
According to experts, behind the state-owned bank's sharp increase in real estate loan interest rates is the strategy of "pulling the valve to stop" capital flows and controlling market risks as the State Bank continues to maintain a cautious stance on real estate credit.
It can be seen that the increase in lending interest rates for real estate only affects new loans, while old real estate loans will not be immediately affected. But if the situation of increasing lending interest rates for real estate lasts for the whole year of 2026, it will seriously affect the real estate market.
Buyers have difficulty accessing capital, and greater payment pressure makes many people consider more carefully before depositing money. If they have to borrow from banks to buy houses and pay gradually for many years, with interest rates up to nearly 14%/year, they will definitely limit borrowing from banks to buy houses because the loan interest rate is too high.
With the current interest rate level, a loan of 1 billion VND at around 14% creates interest payment pressure equivalent to a loan of 2 billion VND when the interest rate was still 6.5% before. Although the loan amount remains unchanged, the actual financial obligations have nearly doubled, increasing the payment burden of most homebuyers.
For the group of investors borrowing from banks who are about to expire the preferential interest rate period, they will face great risks if loan interest rates increase sharply. In case the cash flow for leasing is not enough to cover costs, investors are forced to rotate cash flow or sell early, putting pressure on market liquidity.
Meanwhile, through exchanges, representatives of many real estate businesses said that maintaining high loan interest rates for a long time will have a major impact on the market.
Most real estate project investors currently use large loans from banks. If banks maintain interest rates at nearly 14% for a long time, they will "eat all" of the investor's profits in case the project has finalized the price and launched goods.
In case businesses have not finalized prices and sell goods to the market, they will be forced to adjust and increase house selling prices to ensure profits. But if investors continue to increase prices, the issue is whether there will be buyers or not, the demand for buying houses will definitely decrease.
In addition, investors also bear higher financial costs when in the past, to increase liquidity, many investors have committed to support fixed interest rates for homebuyers in the first 2 years. Some investors even committed 0% loan interest for homebuyers.
