If your floating-rate mortgage costs markedly more than newly issued mortgages, negotiate a lower rate with the bank or apply to refinance

No charge. Call the bank or apply through mobile banking; allow a few dozen minutes. The bank may refuse.

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.

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）. https://www.gov.cn/gongbao/2026/issue_13026/202610/content_7082770.html；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）. https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/202409/content_6977671.htm

The document does not specify the required degree of deviation; check your lending bank’s announcement. This provision covers floating-rate mortgages issued by banks. If the bank refuses a reduction and you have spare money, compare prepayment using Section 5, Item 28. Refinancing cannot increase the amount borrowed: the new loan cannot exceed the old loan’s remaining principal.