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The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA):
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 March increased by 25.5% to HK$8.9 billion compared with February.
New loans approved increased by 46.0% to HK$16.7 billion. The increase was distributed across all types of property transaction. Approvals for primary-market transactions increased by HK$2.1 billion or 106.8%, approvals for secondary-market transactions by HK$2.8 billion or 33.1%, and approvals for refinancing loans by HK$0.4 billion or 39.4%. The number of new applications increased to 13,261 compared with 8,445 in February.
Nearly 50% of the new mortgage loans approved in March were priced within the range of 2% to 2.5% below the best lending rate, compared with 14% in February. The proportion of new mortgage loans priced with reference to rates other than the best lending rate (mostly HIBOR) declined to 29.5% in March from 32.0% in February.
The outstanding value of mortgage loans remained little changed at HK$587 billion.
The mortgage delinquency ratio declined slightly to 0.05% while the rescheduled loan ratio remained unchanged at 0.13%. The combined ratio declined to 0.18% from 0.19% in February.
For further enquiries, please contact:
Thomas Chan, Communications Chief, at 2878 1480 or
Hing-fung Wong, Manager (Communications), at 2878 1802
Ends/Monday, April 27, 2009
Issued at HKT 19:00
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