****************************************************
The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced the results of the residential mortgage survey for October 2011.
New mortgage loans drawn down during October decreased by 16.8% to HK$11.5 billion compared with September.
New loans approved in October fell by 14.6% to HK$12.5 billion compared with September. Among these, approvals for primary market transactions decreased by 14.1% to HK$2.2 billion while approvals for secondary market transactions declined by 16.5% to HK$8.2 billion. Approvals for refinancing dropped by 6.8% to HK$2 billion. The number of new applications in October fell by 28.3% compared with September to 6,613. The figures reflect a continued decline in overall residential property transactions.
New mortgage loans priced with reference to best lending rates increased from 51.3% in September to 69.7% in October, with the largest portion priced in the range of 2.25% to less than 2.5%. New mortgage loans priced with reference to HIBOR decreased to 28.1% in October, mainly reflecting banks' upward adjustments in the mortgage rate priced with reference to HIBOR.
The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased by 0.2% to HK$801.1 billion at end-October compared with end-September.
The mortgage delinquency ratio remained unchanged at 0.01% while the rescheduled loan ratio decreased to 0.02% in October, which has been the lowest level since September 2001 when the HKMA started to collect this information.
Ends/Monday, November 28, 2011
Issued at HKT 16:32
NNNN
