Mortgage loans remained stable in January, and housing enterprise insurance was advanced in an orderly manner—
Real estate financing expectations steadily improving
Currently, market expectations for real estate financing are steadily improving. Preliminary statistics show that real estate loans will increase by about 600 billion yuan in January 2022, an increase of about 300 billion yuan over the monthly average in the fourth quarter of last year. Among them, real estate development loans increased by about 200 billion yuan, and personal housing loans increased by about 100 billion yuan. In addition to indirect financing, the direct financing of real estate companies has also improved, and many real estate companies have issued or are planning to issue medium-term notes in the interbank market.
At the same time, the risk mitigation work of some real estate companies is progressing in an orderly manner. After the People’s Bank of China and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission jointly issued the “Notice on Doing a Good Job in M&A Financial Services for Risk Disposal Projects of Key Real Estate Enterprises”, China Merchants Bank, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, Ping An Bank and other institutions have been actively participating recently.
A number of industry insiders said that the stable and healthy development trend of the real estate market will not change. In the next step, the regulatory authorities will continue to adhere to the positioning of “housing and not speculating”, fully implement the long-term mechanism for real estate in accordance with the requirements of exploring new development models, and maintain the continuity, consistency and stability of real estate financial policies.
Housing financing continues to improve
With the joint efforts of all parties, real estate sales, land purchases, financing and other activities are gradually returning to normal, and market expectations are steadily improving.
Anticipation stability is essential for market stability. Since the second half of 2021, the risks of individual real estate companies have become explicit. Affected by this, market expectations were unstable, the risk aversion of various real estate entities increased, and financial institutions also experienced short-term stress responses, and the consistent contraction of credit accidentally hurt the reasonable financing needs of some real estate companies.
Since then, the regulatory authorities have corrected market concerns in a timely manner and stabilized market expectations. This can be seen from the latest data: according to preliminary statistics, real estate loans increased by about 600 billion yuan in January 2022, an increase of about 300 billion yuan over the monthly average in the fourth quarter of last year; real estate loans in the fourth quarter of 2021 increased by 773.4 billion yuan , an increase of 202 billion yuan year-on-year, an increase of 157.8 billion yuan over the third quarter.
“There are three reasons for the steady growth of real estate loans.” Zhou Maohua, a macro researcher at the Financial Market Department of China Everbright Bank, said that first, the financial supervision department rectified the implementation of the mortgage policy of some financial institutions in a timely manner, and the effect was obvious; The environment is gradually improving; third, the financial supervision department has clearly stated that it will meet the reasonable financing needs of housing companies, encourage market-oriented mergers and acquisitions, and at the same time increase financial support for housing leasing. These factors have jointly helped to stabilize market expectations.
It is worth noting that in addition to indirect financing through bank credit, the direct financing environment for real estate has also improved. It is reported that two private real estate companies, Chongqing Longfor Enterprise Development Co., Ltd. and CIFI Group Co., Ltd., have recently obtained registration notices for medium-term notes of RMB 5 billion. This is the first time that Longfor and CIFI have registered in the inter-bank bond market for Debt financing instruments for project construction purposes.
In response to the speculation that real estate financing will “recover” and “rebound” in the market, Zeng Gang, deputy director of the National Finance and Development Laboratory, said that next, the reasonable demand for real estate will continue to be met, but it will not rebound strongly, but stabilize , gradually rebounded, and the positioning of “housing and not speculating” will not change.
Risk resolution is progressing in an orderly manner
An important basis behind the improvement of the real estate financing environment is to resolve the risks of real estate enterprises in a stable and orderly manner. “After all, the credit support provided by financial institutions to real estate enterprises must be based on the principle of marketization. If the leverage ratio of real estate enterprises is still high, or the pressure of debt repayment is still very high, then financial institutions will be relatively prudent.” Zeng Gang said.
What is the idea of resolving real estate risks? “Project mergers and acquisitions between real estate enterprises is an effective market-based method for the survival of the fittest in the real estate industry and for resolving risks.” Zou Lan, director of the Financial Market Department of the People’s Bank of China, said that real estate enterprise groups that have been out of danger and have difficulty in capital turnover still hold For the equity or assets of some high-quality project subsidiaries, many high-quality private enterprises and state-owned enterprises in the industry are willing to buy them. Accordingly, this also creates a demand for specialized financing services.
To this end, in December 2021, the central bank and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission jointly issued the “Notice” to encourage financial institutions to support risk resolution and industry clearing in a market-oriented manner. The “Notice” encourages financial institutions to improve service efficiency and create a favorable environment for mergers and acquisitions in terms of carrying out M&A loan business in a stable and orderly manner, increasing support for bond financing, actively providing M&A financing advisory services, improving M&A service efficiency, and doing a good job in risk management. The financing environment will help to defuse risks and promote the clearing of the industry.
The reporter was informed that relevant explorations are being actively and orderly advanced, and preliminary progress has been made. On February 14, China Merchants Bank and Joy City Holding Group Co., Ltd. signed a strategic cooperation agreement on real estate M&A financing. China Merchants Bank will give priority to providing Joy City with comprehensive financial services related to real estate M&A, with a special financing amount of 10 billion yuan. In addition, Ping An Bank plans to launch the issuance of real estate M&A-themed bonds in the near future, with an initial tranche of 5 billion yuan, and the raised funds will be used exclusively for M&A loans for real estate projects.
In addition to financial support from commercial banks, real estate companies themselves have also issued related bonds in the direct financing market for project mergers and acquisitions. At present, the medium-term notes for mergers and acquisitions by real estate companies “China Merchants Shekou Industrial Zone Holdings Co., Ltd. 2022 Phase 1 Medium-term Notes (M&A)” have been successfully issued. Debt financing instruments for M&A projects.
Personal mortgages remain stable
While the financing of housing enterprises has improved, personal housing loans continued to remain stable, focusing on ensuring the rigid needs of home buyers. Comparing the previous data, it can be seen that personal housing loans increased by 348.1 billion yuan in October 2021, an increase of 101.3 billion yuan compared with September; and an increase of 401.3 billion yuan in November 2021, an increase of 53.2 billion yuan compared with October; and this In January 2022, the monthly average level in the fourth quarter of 2021 will increase by about 100 billion yuan.
Where is the focus of additional funds flowing to – the orientation of “stabilizing rigid demand” remains unchanged. “More than 90% of the current bank personal housing loans are first home loans,” said Liu Zhongrui, head of the Statistics Information and Risk Monitoring Department of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission.
While the total amount increased, loan prices and lending cycles also underwent certain adjustments. The reporter visited real estate agencies in Beijing and found that the current cycle of personal housing loans from application to approval and disbursement has been shortened, and some banks can make disbursement three days after the transfer, and the specific disbursement speed varies according to the personal qualifications of the homebuyer.
The adjustment in loan prices is related to structural interest rate cuts. On January 20, the market quotation rate (LPR) of the new loan market was lowered, and the LPR of more than 5 years, which is closely related to home buyers, fell to 4.6%, a decrease of 5 basis points from the previous month, ending the previous 20 consecutive months of unchanged. pattern.
“Since the LPR was lowered on January 20, more and more customers have come to inquire about the change in the monthly mortgage payment.” A manager of Lianjia Beijing Fuxingmenwai Street Store said that this depends on the interest rate adjustment selected by the buyers when they signed the loan contract at that time. Way. Borrowers who have previously chosen the “floating interest rate” method will indeed reduce the monthly mortgage repayment amount, but if the borrower previously chose the “fixed interest rate” method, even if the LPR for more than 5 years is reduced, the repayment amount will not be reduced. It will change, “but for new home buyers applying for mortgages, the above problems do not exist.”
“Next, we will continue to ensure the credit needs of the just-needed groups, and urge banks to support first-time homebuyers in terms of loan down payment ratio and interest rate.” Liu Zhongrui said, at the same time, it will increase support for affordable rental housing, research Detailed financial support measures.
Earlier, the central bank and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission have issued a notice stating that loans related to affordable rental housing are not included in the management of real estate loan concentration, and have made relevant arrangements to encourage banking financial institutions to comply with laws and regulations, control risks, and commercial sustainability. to increase support for the development of affordable rental housing.
(Editor in charge: Wang Qingyu)
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