In the past month, the deposit market has recorded a wave of interest rate hikes at many commercial banks. Many banks have strongly adjusted savings interest rates, with an increase of up to 1.6%/year for some terms. Currently, savings interest rates around 7%/year have appeared at many banks, mainly for terms of 6-7 months.
At the same time, home loan interest rates also began to increase slightly. From the end of November 2025, many banks have adjusted home loan interest rates, causing the average home loan interest rate to increase by about 1 - 2%. The common home loan interest rate is currently from 7 - 9%/year during the preferential period of 1-3 years.
Meanwhile, some homebuyers said that the outstanding loan interest rate of many commercial banks has increased from 12.2% in September 2025 to about 14% from November 2025.
Preferential loan packages with fixed interest rates of 5.2-5.5% for 3 years for customers under 35 years old at Vietcombank, BIDV, Agribank... have stopped being implemented. Instead, there is a new interest rate level, commonly from 6.3 - 7% for short terms and floating according to the market after incentives.
Previously, in the case of paying an interest rate of 6.5% in the first two years, when switching to floating, monthly expenses increased by a few million VND, directly affecting borrowers' spending.
Mr. and Mrs. Phuong (residents in Di An, Ho Chi Minh City) said that they borrowed 1.6 billion VND from the bank in 2024 to buy an apartment. The preferential interest rate offered by the bank for the first two years is 7.4%/year, so the monthly loan repayment cost for the couple is about 15 million VND. This is an acceptable level for the couple's income of about 50 million VND.
However, bank employees just announced that interest rates will increase in the near future, making him restless. Accordingly, from 2026, the bank announced a projected floating interest rate of 12% when incentives expire. If the loan is maintained as it is now, the monthly payout may increase to 20 million VND. This is too large a figure and disrupts all calculations of the couple.
This is a common situation for people borrowing to buy preferential houses that have been disbursed before. In the period 2023-2024, many investors and banks have launched loan packages with interest rates of 5.5%/year, even interest freezes and principal grace periods of up to 5 years. However, when the preferential period ends and enters the floating interest rate period (10-14%), the pressure to repay debts for homebuyers will increase sharply.
Dr. Nguyen Duy Phuong - Director of Financial Investment of DG Capital - said that many investors are applying the program of selling houses with fixed interest rates for a few years. For many young people, when hearing the fixed interest rate of 6%/year, homebuyers feel that this is a low and stable interest rate, easy to pay to the bank.
However, buyers have not yet imagined that the "floating interest rate trap" can cause homebuyers to lose financial control. Reality shows that with a fixed 2-year interest rate, homebuyers will have a lighter burden of payments to the bank, but by the 3rd year onwards, this floating interest rate is usually over 10%, even reaching 14 - 16% or more at some times.
Therefore, experts recommend that homebuyers for the first time should only borrow money from banks at a reasonable loan amount. Do not use financial leverage by borrowing from banks more than 50% of the house value even though banks can lend up to 80%.
In addition, you should not borrow at a payment level exceeding 50% of your monthly income, this will help homebuyers ensure safety and avoid financial risks when unsecured interest rates increase.
