As the rejection rate for home loans looks set to increase further, property developers are asking the country’s financial institutions to soften home loan approval criteria to help facilitate more sales and give the sector a much needed boost, according to local media.
Developers are also calling on the government to shorten its blacklist period for credit card and auto loan non-payment from three years to one in a bid to give homebuyers more access to mortgages.
This will eventually help boost the property sector amid the current unfavourable sentiment, Atip Bijanonda, president of the Housing Business Association, explained. He noted that the home loan rejection rate is expected to rise this year. At the moment it checks in at 50 percent. However, some companies have recorded home loan rejections of around 70 percent with the low-priced segment the hardest hit.
“The overall housing market this year is quite sluggish as economic conditions are waning and many potential homebuyers are unable to get mortgages despite their good qualifications,” Atip told the Bangkok Post. “Many home loan applications were rejected for nonsensical reasons. Some homebuyers who had earlier been qualified for home loans are now being rejected despite having the same qualifications.”
Some in the industry are urging financial institutions to use the same loan approval criteria that was used in years past. One recent change made saw home loan applicants who used to receive a credit line of 50 times their monthly income now only getting 30-40 times of the total from select banks.
“With the sluggish economy, the government wants the private sector to invest. But if developers can’t sell and transfer housing units, how can they continue investing?”Atip pointed out. “Developers can’t unload their housing stock because banks aren’t giving out loans.”
The relatively long blacklist period imposed by the National Credit Bureau has proven to be another stumbling block for those trying to obtain a home loan. The NCB has blacklisted more than 100,000 people who have now cleared their credit card or auto loan debt.
