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The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
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 November 2008 decreased by 28.4% to HK$8.1 billion compared with October 2008.
New loans approved decreased by 37.9% to HK$8.5 billion. The decrease was distributed across all types of property transaction. Approvals for primary market transactions decreased by HK$0.4 billion or 24.7%, approvals for secondary market transactions by HK$3.5 billion or 37.4%, and approvals for refinancing loans by HK$1.3 billion or 49.1%. The number of new applications decreased by 20.6%.
The proportion of new loans approved at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate decreased to 15.0% from 51.7% in October.
The outstanding value of mortgage loans remained little changed at HK$600 billion.
The mortgage delinquency ratio and the rescheduled loan ratio remained unchanged at 0.05% and 0.13% respectively. The combined ratio remained at a record low of 0.18% in November.
For further enquiries, please contact:
Peggy Lo, Manager (Communications), at 2878 1687 or
Hing-fung Wong, Manager (Communications), at 2878 1802
Ends/Monday, December 29, 2008
Issued at HKT 16:32
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