Commercial banks are estimated to lend VND228 trillion to the local real estate sector by December 31, rising 23.5% from end-2009, the State Bank of Vietnam, the country’s central bank, said.
The figures are still at acceptable level given current lending interest rates, the central bank said in a statement posted on its website on December 24.
As of Oct 31, total outstanding loans to property sector had increased 22.01% from end-2009 to VND224.843 trillion. Credit growth of the whole banking system expanded 23.87% in the period.
Local banks, which were allowed to offer negotiable interest rates to medium and long-term loans, currently offer to provide consumer loans with interest rates of between 18% and 23% per annum.
Preferential interest rates are only applied for a certain type of social-housing projects. Such kinds of loans have been mainly provided by the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) and the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), it added.
Statistics from the Ministry of Construction has showed that Vietnam has a total of 2,500 housing projects, new urban projects and other real estate projects across the country. The number of social housing projects, however, was modest at 300 only.
Of the sum, 800 projects are located in Hanoi, covering 75,189 hectares. Total loans for real estate projects in Hanoi rose to $10 billion by late July, with bad debt ratio estimated at below 2%.
Nguyen Hong Quan, minister of Construction, said real estate market plays an important role and makes direct impacts on the country’s economic growth, and has closely tied to monetary, construction, and labor markets. (SBV)
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