Loan interest on first homes likely to fall

The average interest rate for first home loans continued to decline steadily in January, following a 0.53% month-on-month decrease in December, Yicai.com reported.

The average lending rate for first home buyers in January was 5.66% nation-wide, which is 1.155 times the benchmark interest rate, decreasing by 0.35% from December, according to data released by Rong360 Big Data Institute.

For first-tier cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the rate of first home loans were in the range of 5.09% to 5.57%.

However, second-tier cities saw a large correction. For example, in Tianjin, many banks cut mortgage interest rates, and lowered first home loan rates to 5% above the benchmark interest rate, compared to the previous 15% above the benchmark.

It is expected that more cities will see a downward adjustment of their first home lending rate, and the decrease will vary from city to city, said Li Weiyi, analyst at Rong360.