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The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced today (July 25) the results of its latest survey on residential mortgage loans (RMLs) in negative equity*.
The estimated number of RMLs in negative equity decreased to 30 cases** at end-June 2014 from 81 cases at end-March 2014. These cases were mainly related to staff housing loans of banks and housing loans under mortgage insurance programme, which have higher loan-to-value ratio.
The aggregate value of RMLs in negative equity decreased to HK$129 million at end-June 2014 compared with HK$345 million at end-March 2014.
The unsecured portion of these loans decreased to HK$3 million at end-June 2014 from HK$8 million at end-March 2014.
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 99% 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, July 25, 2014
Issued at HKT 17:32
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