Real estate lending continued to remain high at more than 10 per cent of the total outstanding loans in several banks.

Online news portal Bizlive.vn reported that the top five banks recording a high proportion of real estate lending by the end of last year were Sacombank, 17.6 per cent; Techcombank, 12.6 per cent; LienVietPostBank, 11.6 per cent; Kienlongbank, 10.1 per cent and VPBank, 8.5 per cent.

Except for LienVietPostBank, which saw a slight increase in real estate lending, the other four posted a strong decline in the proportion of lending to real estate businesses. VPBank managed to pull this ratio to below 10 per cent instead of 11.7 percent in 2016.

Three other banks that also recorded an increase in the proportion of lending to real estate businesses but kept it under 10 per cent were ABBank, HDBank and SHB.

According to State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV), the total outstanding loans in real estate of credit institutions by the end of last year exceeded VND471 trillion (US$20.72 billion), mostly for projects in urban zone construction and housing development as well as house repairing and business activities.

Earlier this year, SBV had ordered lenders to tighten control of investment loans intended for the real estate and securities markets, warning risks of bad debt.

“Lenders should avoid focusing on stock and real estate customers and maintain credit growth in these sectors within safe limits,” SBV said in a statement.

They should keep track of their debtors’ finances and progress of their projects, it said.

“Credit expansion should go hand in hand with strict supervision to ensure loans are used for the purposes they are intended for and do not add to bad debt,” the statement read. — VNS