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According to the 24 authorized institutions (AIs) which participate in the HKMA¡¦s monthly survey of residential mortgage lending, the value of new mortgage loans drawn down during July fell for the second consecutive month, by a third, to HK$11.0 billion.
New loans approved by the AIs also decreased by a third, to HK$9.9 billion. There was an across-the-board reduction in the number and value of all types of approvals. In value terms, primary market transactions fell by 49.3%, refinancing loans by 41.4% and secondary market transactions by 27.7%. The number of new applications also fell by 30.5%.
The proportion of new loan approvals priced at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate decreased further to 17.3% compared with 40.4% in June. The proportion of new loan approvals priced at more than 2.0% and up to 2.25% below the best lending rate increased to 25.1% from 13.4% in June to become the most commonly used interest rate band for new approvals in July.
The outstanding value of mortgage loans fell by 0.2% to HK$542.0 billion.
The mortgage delinquency ratio remained unchanged at 0.22%. With the rescheduled loan ratio edging down to 0.37% from 0.38%, the combined ratio improved to 0.58%* from 0.60% in June.
* Not the sum of the two ratios, due to rounding.
For further enquiries, please contact:
Kevin Ip, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687 or
Thomas Chan, Senior Manager (Press), at 2878 1480
Ends/Thursday, August 25, 2005
Issued at HKT 16:30
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