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According to the 23 authorized institutions (AIs) which participate in the HKMA's monthly survey of residential mortgage lending, new mortgage loans drawn down during May increased by 29.6% to HK$13.9 billion.
New loans approved rose by 22.7% to HK$17.7 billion. The increase was due to increases of HK$0.9 billion (+35.6%) in approvals for primary market transactions and of HK$2.6 billion (+30.8%) in approvals for secondary market transactions, which more than offset the HK$0.2 billion (-5.8%) decrease in approvals for refinancing loans. The number of new applications increased by 22.8%.
The proportion of new loans approved at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate increased to 85.2% from 76.0% in April, while the proportion of new approvals priced with reference to rates other than the best lending rate or fixed rates decreased to 11.3% from 20.6% over the same period.
The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased by 0.3% to HK$532.5 billion.
The mortgage delinquency ratio improved to a record low of 0.16%. With the rescheduled loan ratio falling to 0.25% in May, the combined ratio also improved to a record low of 0.42%*.
* Not the sum of the two ratios, due to rounding.
For further enquiries, please contact:
Sara Yip, Manager (Press), at 2878 8246 or
Hing-fung Wong, Officer (Press), at 2878 1802
Ends/Monday, June 25, 2007
Issued at HKT 16:45
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