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The following is issued on behalf of Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
According to the 23 authorised institutions (AIs) which participate in the HKMA¡¦s monthly survey of residential mortgage lending, new mortgage loans drawn down during August increased by 13.9% to HK$16.1 billion.
New loans approved rose by 10.9% to HK$19.3 billion. The increase was due to increases of HK$0.3 billion (+8.6%) in approvals for primary market transactions and of HK$1.7 billion (+15.3%) in approvals for secondary market transactions, which more than offset the HK$0.1 billion (-2.0%) decrease in approvals for refinancing loans. The number of new applications increased by 19.4%.
The proportion of new loans approved at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate increased to 93.0% from 90.9% in July, while the proportion of new approvals priced with reference to rates other than the best lending rate or fixed rates decreased to 3.3% from 5.2% over the same period.
The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased by 0.7% to HK$542.3 billion.
The mortgage delinquency ratio declined further to 0.13%. With the rescheduled loan ratio unchanged at 0.23%, the combined ratio improved to 0.36%. Both the mortgage delinquency ratio and the combined ratio reached record lows in August.
For further enquiries, please contact:
Thomas Chan, Senior Manager (Press), at 2878 1480 or
Hing-fung Wong, Officer (Press), at 2878 1802
Ends/Monday, September 24, 2007
Issued at HKT 17:30
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