If you are carrying a floating-rate mortgage, and the rate is a clear step above newly issued mortgages, ask the bank to negotiate a lower rate or apply to replace the loan

A mortgage rate is a benchmark rate plus a few points. The points added used to be locked for the life of the contract; from 2024 you are allowed to discuss changing them with the bank. If your rate is a clear step above newly issued mortgages nationwide, you can ask the bank to lower it, or apply for a new loan to replace the old one. On a loan of 1000000 yuan over 30 years, a rate half a percentage point lower means about 100000 yuan less interest.

Cost

No monetary cost. Call the bank’s service line, or apply in the mobile bank — a few tens of minutes once. The bank does not have to agree.

Benefit

A 2024 announcement of the People’s Bank of China allows the borrower and the lender to negotiate a change in the points added to, or taken off, the LPR in the mortgage rate. The LPR is the loan prime rate; a mortgage rate is that rate plus or minus points. In a press briefing, the responsible person at the People’s Bank of China said that the points written in the old contract were fixed for the whole term of the loan, and that this change alters that. In August (8) 2026 the People’s Bank of China and the National Financial Regulatory Administration wrote into a document: for floating-rate mortgages already issued, when the rate has diverged by a certain margin from the rate on newly issued mortgages nationwide, “the borrower may negotiate with the banking institution to change the interest rate agreed in the contract, or apply for a newly issued floating-rate personal housing loan to replace the existing loan. The method shall be chosen by the borrower.” The new loan must not be larger than the principal left on the old loan. How much you can save, worked by the equal-payment formula as an example: a loan of 1000000 yuan over 30 years, at an annual rate of 4.0%, has a monthly payment of about 4774 yuan, and at 3.5% about 4490 yuan. That is about 284 yuan less a month, and about 100000 yuan less interest over 30 years.

Notes

How wide the divergence has to be before you can talk is not given as a figure in the document. Use the announcement of the bank that made your loan. This item covers floating-rate mortgages issued by banks. If the bank will not lower the rate, and you have spare cash, you can compare it with the method in Section 5, item 28 (paying a mortgage off early). A replacement cannot borrow more. The new loan cannot exceed the principal left on the old loan.

Sources · 2

1. 中国人民银行、金融监管总局 (2026). 关于改革完善房地产信贷管理推动加快构建房地产发展新模式的意见（银发〔2026〕171 号，第二十四条）. gov.cn/gongbao/2026/issue_13026/202610/conten…
2. 中国人民银行 (2024). 中国人民银行有关负责人就完善商业性个人住房贷款利率定价机制有关问题答记者问（介绍中国人民银行公告〔2024〕第 11 号）. gov.cn/zhengce/202409/content_6977671.htm