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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 August 2011.
New mortgage loans drawn down during August decreased by 27.0% to HK$14.7 billion compared with July.
New loans approved in August fell by 10.3% to HK$15.8 billion compared with July. Among these, approvals for primary market transactions declined by 9.2% to HK$2.5 billion while approvals for secondary market transactions declined by 11.9% to HK$10.5 billion. Approvals for refinancing dropped by 5.1% to HK$2.8 billion. The number of new applications in August rose by 5.0% compared with July to 9,682.
New mortgage loans priced with reference to best lending rates increased from 25.9% in July 2011 to 42.1% in August 2011, with the largest portion priced less than 2.25%. New mortgage loans priced with reference to HIBOR decreased to 55.8% in August, mainly reflecting banks' upward adjustments in the mortgage rate priced with reference to HIBOR.
The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased by 0.4% to HK$797.1 billion at end-August compared with end-July.
The mortgage delinquency ratio and the rescheduled loan ratio remained unchanged at 0.01% and 0.03% respectively in August.
Ends/Monday, September 26, 2011
Issued at HKT 16:32
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