About this calculator
Every month, Chinese employees and their employers pay into a Housing Provident Fund account, and the payoff is access to the cheapest mortgage credit in the country: as of October 2026 a first-home fund loan over five years costs 2.60%, against roughly 3.05% for a commercial first-home loan (the 5-year+ LPR of 3.50%, published by the People's Bank of China on 20 October 2026 and unchanged for 17 months, minus the ~45bp discount major-city banks currently offer). The catch is quantity, not price: fund lending is run city by city, and each municipal fund centre caps the loan — by household, by contribution history, or both. When the home costs more than the cap allows, banks write a combined loan （组合贷）: the fund lends up to its cap at 2.60%, a commercial bank lends the rest at the market rate, and the two halves amortise side by side under one roof payment.
The caps differ enormously, which is why the cap is an input here rather than a hard-coded table. Family maximums in October 2026: Shanghai ¥2,400,000 for a first home (raised from ¥1,600,000 on 26 February 2026, with multi-child and green-building uplifts stacking to ¥3,240,000 at most), Guangzhou ¥2,000,000, Beijing ¥1,200,000 — where the personal cap also accrues at ¥150,000 per year of contributions — Shenzhen a ¥1,300,000 base that a balance-multiple formula can stack far higher, and Chengdu ¥1,200,000 for dual-contributor households. Most cities also run a second, quieter cap formula: your account balance times a multiple (commonly 10–20×), or your monthly contribution projected over the loan term. Whichever binds lower is your real ceiling, and single applicants usually get roughly half the family cap. Check your own city fund centre for the figure that applies to you, then enter it above.
How to use it
- Enter the total loan (home price minus down payment — the China mortgage calculator works that out from a price if you need it).
- Enter the fund portion you would like, then your city's family cap: the calculator caps the fund part automatically and pushes the overflow into the commercial part.
- Set the two rates and terms — the parts may run for different terms, as they can in practice, though most combined loans share one.
- Pick a repayment method: equal payment （等额本息） keeps the monthly payment flat; equal principal （等额本金） front-loads principal, so the headline figure is the first month and the decrease per month is listed separately.
- Read the comparison block: combined payment and interest against the all-commercial scenario, with the saving from the fund portion stated on its own lines.
The formula
P is that part's principal, r its monthly rate (annual ÷ 12) and n its months. The fund part is min(amount wanted, city cap, total loan); the commercial part is the remainder. This is exactly how banks compute a combined loan — two schedules, one combined debit. The "interest saved" line is the all-commercial interest minus the combined interest on identical totals and terms, isolating what the cheap fund money is worth.
Worked example
A ¥1,400,000 loan with ¥800,000 from the fund at 2.60% and ¥600,000 commercial at 3.05%, 30 years, equal payment: the fund part is ¥3,202.72 a month, the commercial part ¥2,545.83 — a combined ¥5,748.55, with ¥669,478 total interest. Borrowing the whole ¥1,400,000 commercially would cost ¥5,940.28 a month and ¥738,499 of interest, so the fund portion saves ¥69,021 (¥191.73 a month). Switch to equal principal and the combined first month is ¥7,147.22, falling ¥9.05 a month, with interest of ¥588,129 — cheaper again, at the cost of a higher start.
Sources: Rates: 5-year+ LPR 3.50% (PBoC, 20 Oct 2026, unchanged since May 2025); provident fund rates from the PBoC notice of 8 May 2025 (first home 2.60% over 5 years, second home 3.075%). City caps are dated October 2026 examples — Shanghai's ¥2.4M family cap per 沪建房管联〔2026〕75号 (from 26 Feb 2026) — and are set as an input because they are municipal and change often. Last updated: October 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Why is the provident fund portion capped at all?
The fund is a pooled, city-run scheme: contributions from local employees finance local loans, so each municipal fund centre sets maximums that protect its pool. Caps are set per household (and often per person), and many cities add a second formula — your account balance times a multiple, or your contribution base projected forward — and apply whichever is lower. That is why a colleague in Shanghai (family cap ¥2.4M since February 2026) can fund most of a loan cheaply while a buyer in a smaller city may be capped at a few hundred thousand yuan.
How is my personal fund cap actually calculated?
Three ingredients recur across cities: a published household maximum (the input used here), a balance test (account balance × a multiple, often 10–20× — Shenzhen's system is the best-known example, which is how its ¥1.3M base can stack to a reported ¥3.51M), and a contribution test (monthly contribution × a set number of months, sometimes adjusted for years contributed — Beijing accrues ¥150,000 of cap per contribution year up to its ¥1.2M ceiling). Bonuses for multi-child families and certified green buildings (typically +15–35%) stack on top in many cities. Your fund centre app shows your personal figure; enter the binding one as the cap.
What rate does the fund charge — and what about a second home?
Provident fund rates are set nationally by the People's Bank of China and were last cut on 8 May 2025: first home 2.10% up to 5 years and 2.60% beyond; second home 2.525% and 3.075%. Existing fund loans reprice to new rates each 1 January. Commercial rates float with the LPR instead — the 5-year+ LPR is 3.50% (October 2026) and first-home commercial loans in major cities are commonly written around LPR − 45bp, ≈3.05%, which is why those are the defaults here. Both rates are editable for your own offer.
Can the fund and commercial parts have different terms?
Yes — they are separate loans sharing a property pledge, and the fund part has its own maximum term (30 years, and in many cities the borrower's age plus term is capped). In practice most combined loans are written with matching terms for simplicity, but nothing requires it; this calculator lets each part run its own term so you can model, for example, clearing the expensive commercial part faster.
Does the October 2026 fiscal interest subsidy change the comparison?
Slightly. From 1 October 2026, eligible first-home commercial loans receive a central fiscal subsidy of 1 percentage point for up to 5 years (subject to home-size, price and subsidised-principal limits, applied by the lending bank). It narrows — but does not close — the gap this page measures, and only for the first five years. The calculator deliberately uses unsubsidised rates; if you qualify, your commercial part will cost less than shown early on.
What formula does this China Housing Fund Loan calculator use?
Each part amortises on its own rate: equal payment M = P × r(1+r)^n ÷ ((1+r)^n − 1); the combined payment is the sum of the two parts. P is that part's principal, r its monthly rate (annual ÷ 12) and n its months. The fund part is min(amount wanted, city cap, total loan); the commercial part is the remainder. This is exactly how banks compute a combined loan — two schedules, one combined debit. The "interest saved" line is the all-commercial interest minus the combined interest on identical totals and terms, isolating what the cheap fund money is worth. The worked example on this page applies the formula step by step with real numbers, so you can verify the result by hand.