The central bank on Wednesday unveiled amnesty measures to spare real estate inheritors, people with relocation needs and back deals from the credit controls it introduced on Sept. 18.
The move came less than a month after the monetary policymaker significantly tightened lending terms to avoid an overconcentration of house loans and a housing bubble.
Central bank Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) had promised lawmakers to make exceptions for innocent home buyers after many protested that the latest credit control measures would deny them necessary funding, especially for presale and new houses that are soon to be delivered.
Photo: CNA
People who need to move because of a job or family-size changes also would have faced a cash crunch if they had put down a down payment equivalent to 50 percent of the house value.
Alan Pan (潘榮耀), director general of the central bank’s banking department, told a media briefing that first-time mortgage applicants could qualify for grace periods and house loans of up to 85 percent, even if they had already inherited real estate.
“The main difference is the access to grace periods for this group,” Pan said.
The central bank previously denied this group grace periods even though some only had partial ownership of real estate as a result of inheritance.
Pan said people with relocation needs could qualify for lending terms as first-home buyers if they sign an affidavit stating they would sell their old house within a year. Violators would have their favorable lending terms rescinded and need to return the difference in interest payments and pay a higher down payment, he said.
The loan-to-value ratio is 50 percent for second mortgages, 40 percent for third mortgages and 30 percent for fourth mortgages and luxury houses.
In addition, the central bank moved to spare people who had signed purchase agreements prior to the introduction of the credit controls to prevent panic sell-offs, Pan said.
Buyers of presale house projects could also opt to terminate the purchase agreements even though existing rules ban their transfer, he said.
House brokers have had mixed reactions to the exclusionary measures, but are on the same page that they want to reverse a slowdown in the housing market.
H&B Realty Co (住商不動產) said the one-year requirement is too harsh for people with relocation needs because people spend more time finding buyers, while Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) welcomed the exemption on back deals, but predicted that a slowdown ahead remains inevitable due to strict lending terms.
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