For the state-owned banking sector, lending interest rates are lower but have increased quite sharply compared to before. In the group of private joint-stock commercial banks, preferential interest rates in the first 12 - 24 months are commonly at 11 - 12%/year. The longer the fixed period, the higher the interest rate. However, currently many banks do not allow fixed interest rates for a long time but only allow fixed interest rates from 3 - 6 months because the trend of interest rates is increasing.
In that context, the most affected in this period are those who borrowed from 1 - 2 years ago, now reaching the floating interest rate stage. From the common level of 6 - 8%/year as before, they currently have to pay interest rates of 12 - 14%/year, even up to 15%/year in some places, the highest level in the past two years and are likely to increase according to the upward trend of deposit interest rates.
Old borrowers who now have fixed interest rates expired and want to transfer loans to other banks to enjoy interest rate incentives are also not easy because a series of costs and penalty interest are incurred at the old bank, but through the new bank, the preferential interest rate is almost as high as the floating interest rate.
In the current context, in the secondary market, some real estate investors are taking steps to lower prices to sell off. A reporter's survey shows that in many real estate trading groups, many apartments of some projects have been adjusted down in price, and there are even cases where customers have booked but then canceled transactions.
Mr. Doan Quoc Viet (resident in An Phu ward) said that he is looking for someone to buy back 2 apartments he invested in for rent in Vinhomes Grand Park urban area (Long Binh ward) also partly due to pressure from loan interest rates and he also needs to rotate capital flows to compensate for the losses of other investment channels.
With the current interest rate, his monthly loan interest expense is also more than 50 million VND. Meanwhile, renting out apartments or selling with a difference in the current context is almost not at a good price, so he wants to sell to transfer capital to other investment channels.
However, after a week of advertising on real estate trading groups, the interest is almost very low. Mr. Viet also said that, according to information he has obtained from brokerage companies cooperating with him for a long time, currently many apartments in projects or neighboring areas are advertised for sale lower than before the Lunar New Year by about 2%-3% to be able to attract buyers, but purchasing power is still low.
Mr. Nguyen Cuong - Director of a real estate brokerage company in the East of Ho Chi Minh City - said that the amount of goods sent by investors for resale is increasing. The reason, according to him, is that this is the number of customers buying goods at the time when the home loan disbursed at the end of 2023 - early 2024 begins to enter the grace period for principal debt, causing the obligation to repay principal and interest to increase sharply.
The situation of out-of-stock concentration is concentrated in the group of investors surfing high-end apartments, accounting for a higher proportion. However, the phenomenon of investors selling off has not yet occurred, but the need to reduce prices to find buyers is there. The pressure of out-of-stock but not competing for a new basket of goods from agents makes this group almost "stuck", Mr. Cuong said.
The business director of a real estate company in Ho Chi Minh City said that when interest rates tend to increase, along with more cautious credit policies, the market is showing signs of stagnation. Some businesses are also starting to worry when sales cash flow is slower than expected.
Market records show that in just the past few weeks, bookings at many projects have decreased sharply compared to the previous period. A representative of a housing development business in Ho Chi Minh City said that if at the end of last year, this business recorded about 40-50 bookings per week, now there are only more than 10 bookings left.
