Malaysia Bank Mortgage Update

Dear Readers,

Many changes had taken place over the last one year, ranging from the introduction of Base Rate in place of the Base Lending Rate (BLR) to the introduction of more restrictive lending guidelines and polices such as reduced margin of financing, restrictive loan tenure (for refinancing), etc. For Malaysian working in Singapore and Singaporeans who used to be happily buying up properties in Malaysia, even they are affected as they now have to compulsorily submit their Credit Bureau Singapore (CBS) Report for bank loan applications. (Just to clarify, CBS is similar to our CCRIS report)

So now you have it, the new loan rates are typically structured in "Base Rate+Spread"=Interest Rates. E.g., 3.99+0.56%... Each component differs for all banks. Base Rate (BR) essentially is determined by the banks' benchmark cost of funds and the Statutory Reserve Requirement (SRR). Whereas Spread reflects borrower credit risk, liquidity risk premium, operating costs and profit margin. In the normal circumstances, banks will revise the Base Rate from time to time to reflect changes in their cost of funds.

For Borrowers who secured their loan prior to 2015, do you need to be worried with the above? Not at all. This is because whatever secured last time remains the same or status quo. However, should you go for refinancing, the new regime shall prevail.

Below is the latest Base Rate for various Financial Institutions as per April 2016 (Source: BNM):

From the Table, you could see that Maybank is having the lowest Base Rate. Do you then just jump in to apply for their loans? Answer is NO. Their effective rate is still similar to other banks because their spread is set high! So is just an illusion!

Back to the bottom line, each and every bank has a different way to assess the loan applications. Your chances of securing loan approval will still depend very much on your credit profile and whether it can match with bank's requirement.

All the best in 2016 for your property journey!