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The following is issued on behalf of the 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 January 2009 decreased by 15.0% to HK$6.1 billion compared with December 2008.
New loans approved increased by 8.0% to HK$11.2 billion. The increase was due to an increase of HK$1.4 billion (+20.2%) in approvals for secondary market transactions, which more than offset decreases of HK$0.1 billion (-5.4%) in approvals for primary market transactions, and of HK$0.4 billion (-36.8%) in approvals for refinancing loans. The number of new applications remained little changed at 8,520 cases.
Over 50% of the mortgage loans approved in January were priced within the range of 1.5% - 2% below the best lending rate. The proportion of new mortgage loans priced with reference to rates other than the best lending rate (mostly HIBOR) increased from 17.7% to 28.4%.
The outstanding value of mortgage loans decreased by 0.1% to HK$587 billion.
The mortgage delinquency ratio and the rescheduled loan ratio remained unchanged at 0.05% and 0.14% respectively. The combined ratio stood at 0.19%.
For further enquiries, please contact:
Thomas Chan, Communications Chief, at 2878 1480 or
Hing-fung Wong, Manager (Communications), at 2878 1802
Ends/Thursday, February 26, 2009
Issued at HKT 17:10
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