Bank Negara has recently announced that maximum personal loan has been limit to a maximum of 10 years while 35 years for property loans with immediate effect.
This is probably due to recent high household debts in Malaysia. Malaysians has long suffered with high cost of vehicle ownership while property prices have nearly doubled recent years. To enable home ownership , some banks even extended their loans to 45 years.
For the past few years, economy has been fueled by domestic consumption with cheap credits. This would be sustainable in the long run if Malaysia keeps growing at least 5% rate. However regional vitality coupled with slower growth from Malaysia’s biggest trading partner China could change the picture.
Malaysians are now living with high debts and this may not be good in the long run for economy. We are currently the 2nd nation with highest household debt in the region. This would be the details from Bank Negara with regards to household debt that is rising fast.
While the acceptable level of debt service ration is 30% , the figure relased by Bank Negara is quite worrying as the national household debts have been rising steadily over the past year.
