Japan Floating Housing Loan Rates Rises for 1st Time in 17 Yrs

Tokyo, Sept. 30 (Jiji Press)--Five major Japanese banks will implement the first increases in their floating interest rates on housing loans in 17 years in October, after raising their short-term prime rates in September, following the Bank of Japan's interest rate hike in July.

MUFG Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., Mizuho Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank and Resona Bank said Monday that they will raise their base interest rates for floating-rate housing loans to 2.625 pct from 2.475 pct.

In Japan, about 70 pct of housing loan users have floating-rate loans.

Actual interest rates on floating-rate loans depend on the borrower's creditworthiness. For October, the best lending rate for new borrowers will be 0.625 pct at Sumitomo Mitsui, 0.48 pct at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust and 0.49 pct at Resona, all up by 0.15 percentage point from the previous month.

Meanwhile, MUFG and Mizuho kept their best rates unchanged at 0.345 pct and 0.375 pct, respectively. Mizuho kept the base interest rate for new loans unchanged as well.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]