China Mortgage LPR Calculator

Calculate Chinese mortgage payments with the latest LPR rates — commercial, provident-fund and combined loans, using equal-installment or equal-principal repayment.

Calculated with a 5-year LPR of 3.5%. Adjust it to your bank's latest quote.

Loan amount

万 (10k)

LPR (5-year)

Rate adjustment (BP)

Effective rate: 3.5%

Loan term

Repayment method

Monthly payment

CN¥4,490.45

Total interest

CN¥616,560

Total repayment

CN¥1,616,560

Loan amount

CN¥1,000,000

This calculator is for informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial advice.

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China mortgage LPR calculator. Monthly payment for commercial, provident-fund and combined home loans.

This calculator prices a mainland-China home loan from the 5-year LPR plus a basis-point margin, then shows the monthly payment, total interest and schedule. It handles commercial, provident-fund and combined loans under both equal-installment and equal-principal repayment.

How China Prices a Mortgage: LPR Plus Basis Points

Since August 2019, every commercial home loan in mainland China is quoted off the 5-year-plus Loan Prime Rate (LPR), a benchmark the People's Bank of China publishes on the 20th of each month. Your contract rate is the LPR plus or minus a fixed margin measured in basis points (BP), where 100 BP equals one percentage point. A bank that quotes "+55 BP" on a 5-year LPR of, say, 3.5% is charging you 4.05%; a "−30 BP" discount means 3.20%. The margin is locked at signing, but the LPR portion is re-read once a year on your repricing date (commonly 1 January), which is why mainland mortgages behave like adjustable-rate loans even though most borrowers never "refinance" in the Western sense.

Three loan structures exist, and they are priced differently. A commercial loan (商业贷款) follows the LPR-plus-BP formula above. A provident-fund loan (公积金贷款) uses a separate, lower rate set by the State Council rather than the LPR — for first-home borrowers it sits well below commercial rates, which is why it is the cheapest money most buyers can access. A combined loan (组合贷款) splits the purchase across both: a provident-fund part up to the city cap plus a commercial part for the remainder, each amortized on its own rate and then added together.

This is a mainland-China model only. Hong Kong mortgages are priced off HIBOR or the bank Prime rate (H-plan / P-plan) and have no LPR and no provident-fund mortgage; Taiwan uses yet another system. Do not use a generic Western mortgage calculator for a mainland purchase either — those tools cannot model LPR plus BP, the provident fund, or the equal-principal repayment method that millions of Chinese borrowers actually choose.

How to Calculate Your China Mortgage Payment

Pricing a mainland-China mortgage takes four decisions: the loan type, the rate, the term, and the repayment method. Here is the step-by-step process this calculator follows:

1. Choose the loan type — commercial, provident-fund, or combined. This decides which rate (or rates) apply.

2. Set the commercial rate from the LPR plus basis points. Enter the current 5-year LPR (the calculator pre-fills a recent value, which you should overwrite with your bank's latest quote) and the BP adjustment. The effective rate is LPR + BP/100. For a provident-fund or combined loan, enter the provident-fund rate separately.

3. Enter the loan amount in 万 (units of 10,000 yuan), the way Chinese contracts are written. A 100万 loan is 1,000,000 CNY. For a combined loan, enter the commercial part and the provident-fund part separately.

4. Pick the term in years (5 to 30) and the repayment method — equal installment (等额本息) or equal principal (等额本金).

5. Read the result. Equal installment shows one fixed monthly figure; equal principal shows the high first payment plus the amount it falls by each month, alongside total interest, total repayment, and a month-by-month schedule.

For example, a 100万 (¥1,000,000) commercial loan over 30 years at a 3.5% rate (LPR 3.5% + 0 BP) under equal installment comes to about ¥4,490 per month, with roughly ¥616,560 in total interest. Switch the same loan to equal principal and the first payment jumps to about ¥5,694, then falls by roughly ¥8 every month — but total interest drops to about ¥526,460, saving close to ¥90,000.

China Mortgage Formulas: Equal Installment and Equal Principal

M = P \times \frac{i(1 + i)^n}{(1 + i)^n - 1}

$M$ = Fixed monthly payment under equal installment (等额本息)
$P$ = Loan principal in yuan (the 万 input multiplied by 10,000)
$i$ = Monthly interest rate — the annual rate (LPR + BP/100, or the provident-fund rate) divided by 12
$n$ = Total number of monthly payments (loan term in years multiplied by 12)

The formula above is the equal-installment method (等额本息), the standard fixed-payment amortization used by every mainland bank. The monthly amount stays constant; early payments are mostly interest and later payments are mostly principal.

The equal-principal method (等额本金) instead repays a constant slice of principal each month and charges interest on the shrinking balance, so the total monthly payment starts high and declines. The payment in month k is:

M_k = \frac{P}{n} + \left(P - \frac{P(k-1)}{n}\right) \times i

The first term is the fixed principal portion (P/n); the second is the interest on the remaining balance, which falls every month by exactly (P/n) × i. Total interest under equal principal has a clean closed form:

I = \frac{P \times i \times (n + 1)}{2}

Equal principal always pays less total interest than equal installment because it retires principal faster, but it demands more cash in the early years. A combined loan applies whichever method you pick to each part separately and sums them month by month:

M_{\text{combined}} = M_{\text{commercial}} + M_{\text{provident}}

The effective commercial rate that feeds these formulas is built from the benchmark and the bank margin: rate = LPR + BP/100, since 100 basis points equals one percentage point.

Worked China Mortgage Examples

¥1,000,000 commercial loan, 30 years — equal installment vs equal principal

Take a 100万 (¥1,000,000) commercial loan over 30 years at a 3.5% rate (5-year LPR 3.5% with a 0 BP margin). Under equal installment (等额本息), you pay a flat ¥4,490.45 every month for 360 months, repaying about ¥1,616,560 in total — of which roughly ¥616,560 is interest. Switch to equal principal (等额本金) and the first month costs about ¥5,694, but each payment then drops by roughly ¥8, ending near ¥2,786. Total interest falls to about ¥526,460. The equal-principal borrower saves close to ¥90,000 in interest in exchange for paying about ¥1,200 more in the first month. This trade-off — lower lifetime cost versus a heavier early burden — is the single biggest decision a Chinese borrower makes.

How basis points move the payment

Banks rarely lend at the bare LPR; they add or subtract a margin. On the same ¥1,000,000 / 30-year / equal-installment loan with a 5-year LPR of 3.5%, the BP margin changes the monthly payment sharply. A −30 BP discount (3.20%) gives about ¥4,325 a month; the bare rate (0 BP, 3.50%) gives ¥4,490; a +55 BP markup (4.05%) gives about ¥4,803. That spread is roughly ¥478 a month, or more than ¥170,000 over the life of the loan, purely from the margin your city and credit profile attract. Always enter your bank's actual quote rather than the headline LPR.

Combined loan: cheap provident-fund money plus a commercial top-up

Many buyers cannot finance the whole purchase with the provident fund because it is capped per city, so they take a combined loan (组合贷款). Suppose you borrow 60万 (¥600,000) through the provident fund at 2.6% and 60万 (¥600,000) commercially at 3.5%, both over 30 years under equal installment. The provident part costs about ¥2,402 a month and the commercial part about ¥2,694, for a combined first payment near ¥5,096. The blended cost is lower than financing the full ¥1,200,000 commercially, because the provident-fund half carries the subsidised rate. The calculator amortizes each part on its own rate and adds them, which is exactly how Chinese banks bill a portfolio loan.

Tips for Reading Your China Mortgage Result

Overwrite the LPR field with your bank's current quote. The benchmark moves on the 20th of each month, and the value pre-filled here is only a starting point — your real rate is the LPR your contract references plus your locked BP margin.
Use the provident fund to its city cap first. The provident-fund rate is set by the State Council and sits below commercial rates, so every yuan you can route through it costs less. When the cap is too low for your purchase, a combined loan lets you fill the gap commercially instead of borrowing the whole amount at the higher rate.
Pick equal principal only if you can absorb the early payments. It pays less total interest, but the first months are noticeably heavier. If your budget is tight early on — or you expect income to rise later — equal installment's flat payment is the safer cash-flow choice even though it costs more overall.
Remember your rate resets annually, not instantly. If the LPR is cut mid-year, your payment usually does not change until your repricing date (often 1 January). Model a lower rate in the calculator to preview next year's payment rather than assuming today's cut applies right away.
Weigh prepayment against your savings yield. Chinese households prepaid an estimated 4.7 trillion yuan in 2022 because mortgage rates outran deposit and wealth-product returns. If your loan rate is higher than what your cash safely earns, paying down principal early can beat leaving the money in the bank — but check whether your contract charges an early-repayment fee in the first few years.
Compare the total-interest figure, not just the monthly payment. A lower monthly number on a longer term can hide tens of thousands of extra yuan in interest. The calculator's total-interest and total-repayment outputs are the honest way to compare two offers side by side.

Common Mistakes With China Mortgage Math

Confusing basis points with percentage points. 100 BP equals 1 percentage point, so "+55 BP" adds 0.55% to the LPR, not 55%. Some bank documents even quote the margin in 基点 (BP) or ‱ (per ten-thousand) — enter the correct sign and scale.
Treating the LPR as your fixed rate. The LPR is only the benchmark; your contract rate is LPR plus a margin, and the LPR half is repriced annually. A calculator that ignores the BP margin will understate most real-world payments.
Applying Hong Kong or Western logic to a mainland loan. Hong Kong uses HIBOR or Prime (H-plan / P-plan) and has no LPR and no provident-fund mortgage. A US-style fixed-rate calculator cannot model LPR + BP, the provident fund, or the equal-principal method.
Forgetting the provident-fund city cap. The subsidised provident-fund loan is limited per city, so you usually cannot finance an entire purchase with it. Budgeting as if you could leaves a financing gap that a combined loan is designed to fill.
Reading only the first equal-principal payment. Under equal principal the headline first payment is the highest you will ever pay; it falls every month. Judging affordability by month one alone overstates the long-run burden.

China Mortgage LPR Calculator — FAQ

What is the LPR and how does it set my mortgage rate?

The Loan Prime Rate (LPR) is a benchmark the People's Bank of China publishes on the 20th of each month. Your commercial mortgage rate is the 5-year LPR plus or minus a margin in basis points set by your bank. 100 basis points equals 1 percentage point, so LPR 3.5% plus 55 BP is 4.05%.

Should I choose equal installment (等额本息) or equal principal (等额本金)?

Equal installment keeps the same payment every month and is easier on early cash flow, but costs more total interest. Equal principal starts with a higher payment that falls each month and pays less interest overall. Choose equal principal if you can absorb the heavier early payments; choose equal installment if you need predictable, lower starting payments.

What is the difference between commercial, provident-fund and combined loans?

A commercial loan is priced at LPR plus a basis-point margin. A provident-fund loan uses a lower government-set rate and is capped per city. A combined loan takes a provident-fund part up to the cap plus a commercial part for the rest, each amortized separately and added together, so you get the cheap subsidised rate on part of the balance.

Can foreigners get a mortgage in mainland China?

Qualifying foreign residents can borrow from Chinese banks, but the bar is higher than for locals. You generally need at least one continuous year of living, working or studying in China on a valid residence permit, you can usually buy only one home for personal use, and banks often require larger down payments and full documentation. Rules vary by city, so confirm with your local bank and housing bureau.

Does this calculator update the LPR automatically?

It pre-fills a recent 5-year LPR so you can start instantly, but it does not pull a live feed. Because the PBoC re-quotes the LPR monthly and your bank adds its own margin, you should overwrite the LPR and basis-point fields with the exact figures on your loan offer for an accurate result.

Is this China mortgage calculator free to use?

Yes. You can run unlimited calculations for commercial, provident-fund and combined loans under either repayment method, with no account required. It is built for expats, overseas buyers and researchers who need the mainland-China LPR model in English.

How accurate are the monthly payment figures?

The math matches the standard mainland-China amortization conventions and cross-checks to the cent against reference calculators: a ¥1,000,000 commercial loan at 3.5% over 30 years returns ¥4,490.45 a month under equal installment. Small sub-yuan differences can appear because each month's payment is rounded and the final payment absorbs the residual, exactly as banks do.

Can I use this for a Hong Kong or Taiwan mortgage?

No. This tool models mainland-China loans only. Hong Kong mortgages are priced off HIBOR or the bank Prime rate (H-plan and P-plan) and have no LPR and no provident-fund loan; Taiwan uses a different system again. Using a mainland LPR model for those markets would give the wrong rate and payment.

When does my mortgage rate actually change after an LPR cut?

Usually not immediately. Most existing mortgages reprice once a year on a set repricing date, commonly 1 January, applying the latest LPR from then on. So a mid-year LPR cut typically lowers your payment only at the start of the following year, not the month it is announced.

Is it worth repaying my China mortgage early?

It can be when your loan rate is higher than the return you can safely earn on cash — the gap that drove an estimated 4.7 trillion yuan of prepayments in 2022. Weigh the interest you would save against any early-repayment fee in your contract's first years, and against keeping liquidity for emergencies.

Key China Mortgage Terms

LPR (Loan Prime Rate, 贷款市场报价利率)

The benchmark lending rate published monthly by the People's Bank of China. The 5-year-plus LPR is the reference for mortgage pricing; your contract rate equals this LPR plus a basis-point margin.

Basis point (BP, 基点)

One hundredth of a percentage point. 100 BP equals 1 percentage point, so a +55 BP margin adds 0.55% to the LPR. Banks quote the margin to express how far above or below the benchmark your loan is priced.

Commercial loan (商业贷款)

A standard bank home loan priced at the LPR plus a basis-point margin. It has no city loan cap but carries a higher rate than the provident fund.

Provident-fund loan (公积金贷款)

A home loan funded by the Housing Provident Fund at a lower, government-set rate. Eligibility depends on contributions to your local fund, and the loan amount is capped per city.

Combined loan (组合贷款)

A portfolio loan that pairs a provident-fund part (up to the city cap) with a commercial part for the remainder. Each part is amortized on its own rate and the payments are summed.

Equal installment (等额本息)

The fixed-payment method: the monthly amount stays constant for the whole term, with interest-heavy early payments shifting toward principal over time. Higher total interest, easier early cash flow.

Equal principal (等额本金)

The constant-principal method: the same slice of principal is repaid each month plus interest on the shrinking balance, so payments start high and fall. Lower total interest, heavier early burden.

Repricing date

The annual date — commonly 1 January — on which an existing mortgage's LPR portion is reset to the latest published LPR. This is why mainland mortgages behave like adjustable-rate loans.

Sources & References

Content verified by the Smart Calculators Team