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The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced the results of the residential mortgage survey for July 2010.
New mortgage loans drawn down during July decreased by 15.9% to HK$25.9 billion compared with June.
New loans approved increased by 15.3% to HK$40.8 billion. Approvals for secondary market transactions surged HK$6.5 billion or 30.4% while those for primary market transactions rose slightly by HK$0.3 billion or 6.0%. These approvals were partially offset by a drop of HK$1.4 billion or 15.7% in approvals for refinancing transactions. The number of new applications increased by 17.9% to 25,877.
Around 11% of the new mortgage loans approved in July were priced with reference to best lending rates. The majority of these loans were in the price range of 2% to less than 2.25%. The proportion of new mortgage loans priced with reference to HIBOR increased to 87.4% from 83.9% in June.
The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased by 2.0% to HK$693.2 billion.
The mortgage delinquency ratio fell to a record low of 0.02% while the rescheduled loan ratio remained unchanged at 0.05% in July.
Ends/Thursday, August 26, 2010
Issued at HKT 17:08
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