Japan: Houses With Solar Get Discounted Loan Rates

Sumitomo Trust offers lower loan rates for houses with solar energy.

Kyodo News reports that Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co. said Tuesday it will offer lower housing loan rates for buyers of houses from Sekisui Chemical Co. that are equipped with a solar energy generation system.

Sumitomo Trust will lower interest rates by 1.7 percentage points from its usual lending rates if such buyers take out long-term loans of either 20 or 30 years at a fixed rate.

The current rates for these loans are 4.65% for 20-year loans and 4.8% for 30-year loans.

They will reduce the rate even further, .05 point, if the solar power generation capacity of the home totals 3 kilowatts (kW); with additional reductions 4 and 5 kW.

Thus, for a 30-year loan for a home with a 5 kW solar PV system, the interest rate will be lowered by 1.85 points to 2.95%.