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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 September 2011.
New mortgage loans drawn down during September decreased by 6.4% to HK$13.8 billion compared with August.
New loans approved in September fell by 7.5% to HK$14.6 billion compared with August. Among these, approvals for primary market transactions increased by 2.6% to HK$2.6 billion while approvals for secondary market transactions declined by 6.0% to HK$9.9 billion. Approvals for refinancing dropped by 22.2% to HK$2.2 billion. The number of new applications in September fell by 4.8% compared with August to 9,218. The figures reflect an overall decline in transaction volume.
New mortgage loans priced with reference to best lending rates increased from 42.1% in August 2011 to 51.3% in September 2011, with the largest portion priced less than 2.25%. New mortgage loans priced with reference to HIBOR decreased to 46.2% in September, mainly reflecting banks' upward adjustments in the mortgage rate priced with reference to HIBOR.
The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased by 0.3% to HK$799.4 billion at end-September compared with end-August.
The mortgage delinquency ratio and the rescheduled loan ratio remained unchanged at 0.01% and 0.03% respectively in September.
Ends/Friday, October 28, 2011
Issued at HKT 16:30
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