*******************************************************
The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced today (January 27) the results of its latest survey on residential mortgage loans (RMLs) in negative equity*.
The estimated number of RMLs in negative equity decreased to 1,465 cases** at end-December 2011 from 1,653 cases at end-September 2011.
The aggregate value of RMLs in negative equity fell to HK$3,647 million at end-December 2011 compared with HK$4,148 million at end-September 2011, representing 0.5% of total amount of outstanding mortgage loans at end-December 2011.
The unsecured portion of these loans decreased to around HK$122 million at end-December 2011 from HK$165 million at end-September 2011.
Since the first quarter of 2011, there have been no RMLs in negative equity with delinquencies of more than three months.
* The mortgage portfolio of the surveyed authorised institutions represents about 98% of the industry total. The survey results have been extrapolated to approximate the position of the banking sector as a whole.
** The figures derived from the survey relate only to RMLs provided by authorised institutions on the basis of first mortgages and which the reporting institution knows to be in negative equity (i.e. the outstanding loan amount with the reporting institution exceeds the current market value of the mortgaged property). Not included in these figures are some RMLs associated with co-financing schemes which would be in negative equity if the second mortgages were taken into account. The extent to which such RMLs are in negative equity is not known because authorised institutions do not maintain records on the outstanding balances of the second mortgages.
Ends/Friday, January 27, 2012
Issued at HKT 16:30
NNNN
