The volume of new housing loans have fallen sharply amidst the government’s cooling measures, especially the Total Debt Servicing Ratio (TDSR), according to media reports.
For instance, new housing loans granted by OCBC plunged by about 40 percent in Q3 2014 compared to its peak in 2012.
Additionally, overall loan growth could slow down next year due to the stringent regulatory environment and property curbs.
Experts also warned about higher non-performing loans (NPLs), especially in the housing loan segment.
A case in point is UOB’s NPLs, which rose for two straight quarters to $502 million in Q3 2014 because of delinquent borrowers who bought luxury residential properties.
“If you are caught on the wrong side of the market, what happens is typically, you may see a small creep up of NPLs from the home loan market. And I suspect that would be adjusted by about 50 bps, a small amount or small figure but in total property value, it is a significant hit,” said Cyrus Daruwala, IDC Financial Insights’ Managing Director for Asia Pacific.
Muneerah Bee, Senior Journalist at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact her about this or other stories email muneerah@propertyguru.com.sg
