Survey: 92.5% of the respondents expect to implement the new provident fund loan policy as soon as possible.
Housing accumulation fund is a special fund to solve the housing problem of employees. However, in reality, for various reasons, the use of provident fund loans for housing purchases often encounters problems. A few days ago, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Finance, the People’s Bank of China and the Ministry of Land and Resources jointly issued the Notice on Safeguarding the Rights and Interests of Housing Provident Fund Deposited into Employees’ Housing Loans (hereinafter referred to as the Notice), which regulated the business acceptance period of the housing provident fund management center, the assessment of entrusted banks, and the behavior of developers to restrict housing provident fund loans.
Last week, a survey of 2010 respondents conducted by the Social Investigation Center of China Youth Newspaper showed that 46.1% of the respondents had been blocked by provident fund loans to buy a house, and 55.8% of the respondents pointed out that second-hand housing owners often refused to accept provident fund loans or portfolio loans because of the long approval time of provident fund. 92.5% of the interviewees expect their places to implement the Notice as soon as possible, and 67.6% of the interviewees believe that the new provident fund loan policy will enable employees to truly enjoy the preferential purchase of houses.
Among the respondents, 66.9% have occupied their own houses, 22.1% are buying them, and 11.0% have not occupied their own houses. Respondents living in first-tier cities accounted for 30.6%, second-tier cities accounted for 44.9%, third-and fourth-tier cities accounted for 18.8%, towns and counties accounted for 4.5%, and rural areas accounted for 1.2%.
55.8% of the respondents pointed out that second-hand house owners often refused to accept provident fund loans because of the long approval period.
"The interest rate of provident fund loans is much lower than that of commercial loans, but the application process is long, and some are as long as half a year." Liu Yang (a pseudonym), 30, is a staff member of Shenyang Municipal Government in Liaoning Province. Six years ago, he bought a new house with a provident fund loan. It took him three or four months to apply for a provident fund loan, and the procedures often could not be completed at one time, so he had to make several trips. "Sometimes I need to go through the next procedure with the approved results, and the processing time is limited. Our family is very anxious and urged for a long time, and finally some things are delayed."
Wang Yuan, a resident of a town in Tangshan, Hebei Province, just bought a newly opened residential house in full a few days ago. "The developer directly indicated that he only accepts full customers without any discussion. It is also said that the next phase of the new real estate is also sold in this way, and the price may double. I want to buy it as soon as possible. "
According to the survey, 78.4% of the respondents found that the use of provident fund loans to buy a house was generally blocked, and 22.4% of the respondents bluntly said it was very common. 46.1% of the respondents have been blocked by provident fund loans to buy a house, 46.8% of the existing housing groups have encountered this situation, and 58.2% are buying a house.
Liao Beibei (pseudonym), who worked in Beijing for two years, bought a stock house at the end of 2017. She recalled that in more than an hour after signing the contract, the intermediary did not ask her which loan method to choose, and directly defaulted to pure commercial loans. "At that time, there were so many things that I forgot to use the provident fund loan. Later, when asked about the intermediary, he said that the house I bought was on the high side, and I could only borrow for 7 years by using the provident fund loan. "
The survey shows that the most common situation when buying a house with provident fund loans is that second-hand house owners do not accept provident fund loans or portfolio loans because of the long approval period of provident fund (55.8%). Others include: second-hand house owners cannot use provident fund loans because of the age limit of second-hand houses, or the loanable period is short (44.8%), developers stipulate that commercial loans are preferred or discounted (44.6%), developers do not accept provident fund loans to buy a house (35.9%), and second-hand house owners directly indicate that commercial loan customers are given priority.
Jiang Tao (pseudonym), a broker in a certain district of a national chain housing agency in Beijing, revealed that the proportion of customers who use provident fund loans is lower than that who use commercial loans. First, it takes a long time to go through the formalities of provident fund loans, and owners generally hope to collect money as soon as possible. At the same price, owners usually prefer full-payment customers, followed by commercial loan customers, and finally provident fund loan customers, and customers need to increase their prices to enhance their advantages. Second, the current maximum amount of provident fund loans in Beijing is 1.2 million yuan, and the low monthly deposit may not reach this level, which requires customers to increase the down payment. In addition, the buildings with long building age and brick-concrete structure also affect the use of provident fund loans to some extent. "It is not uncommon for new real estate developers to require a down payment of more than 50%. Some developers will give customers corresponding discounts according to the amount of down payment in order to get the funds back as soon as possible."
Professor Yi Cong, deputy dean of the School of Economics of Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, pointed out that there are two main reasons for the low efficiency of the use of provident fund at present: first, the approval period of provident fund loans is really too long, the approval procedures are complicated, and the restrictions on purchases and loans will also lengthen the approval time. Second, affected by the long approval time, developers will put provident fund loan customers behind and treat different consumers differently. This is an act of infringing on consumers’ rights and interests.
67.6% of the respondents believe that the new provident fund loan policy will enable employees to truly enjoy the preferential purchase of houses.
"I have seen dozens of houses before and after last year, and I often encounter the situation that the owners only consider the full amount and commercial loan customers." Cheng Xiao (pseudonym), an employee of a foreign company in Beijing, lamented, "After all, there are only a few people who can buy a house in full in Beijing, and the commercial loan interest rate is high, which makes the ordinary working class very difficult."
Cheng Xiao noted that the Notice requires the housing provident fund management center and the entrusted bank to standardize the loan business process, and the examination and approval work will be completed within 10 working days from the date of accepting the loan application. She believes that this move has solved the most critical problem of blocked provident fund loans. "In the future, the procedures for provident fund loans will even be faster than commercial loans, and working-class people can really enjoy the benefits of buying a house."
Wang Yuan said that the "Notice" provides a channel for the masses to report discrimination against provident fund loan customers, which is thoughtful and comprehensive.
According to the survey, 92.5% of the respondents are looking forward to the implementation of the Notice as soon as possible, and 42.1% of the respondents expressed great expectation. 67.6% of the respondents believe that the new provident fund loan policy will enable employees to truly enjoy the preferential treatment of buying houses, 57.4% of the respondents believe that the provident fund loan channel will be effectively guaranteed, 53.8% of the respondents believe that the new policy can effectively crack down on developers who suppress provident fund loan groups in disguise, and 34.6% of the respondents believe that the new policy can greatly shorten the processing period of provident fund loan procedures and provide convenience for employees to buy houses.
To make the Notice effective, Yi Cong pointed out: "First, the detailed implementation rules are the guarantee for the implementation of the policy. Around the housing provident fund management center must be around the "notice" as soon as possible to introduce the implementation details, really improve the efficiency of provident fund loans. Second, strictly implement the spirit of the Notice and come up with reasonable market supervision measures. As the supervision department of the housing market, the Housing Authority should supervise all discriminatory behaviors of developers and accept and handle consumer complaints in a timely manner. "
Yi Cong told reporters that the problem of low utilization rate of provident fund loans has been raised by the government and academic circles for many years, and the traditional provident fund management methods and systems should indeed be improved. "The future provident fund system should be reformed in a more market-oriented direction. Like Germany, the provident fund can be gradually moved to a policy-oriented special savings bank. China now has Sino-German Housing Savings Bank, which is a more market-oriented housing policy savings bank. In the future, it is necessary to gradually improve the efficiency of the use of the provident fund and safeguard the rights and interests of consumers in order for it to play its due role. "
Liu Yang hopes that all localities will really shorten the processing time of provident fund loans. "The staff of relevant departments should improve their work efficiency, and the service windows should be set as centrally as possible. It is best to explain clearly the procedures and processes needed for handling provident fund loans through language or words, so that buyers can run less errands." (Reporter Du Yuanchun, Zhang Ruobai)