Residential Mortgage Survey Results for May 2007

According to the 23 authorized institutions (AIs) which participate in the HKMA’s monthly survey of residential mortgage lending, new mortgage loans drawn down during May increased by 29.6% to HK$13.9 billion.

New loans approved rose by 22.7% to HK$17.7 billion.  The increase was due to increases of HK$0.9 billion (+35.6%) in approvals for primary market transactions and of HK$2.6 billion (+30.8%) in approvals for secondary market transactions, which more than offset the HK$0.2 billion (-5.8%) decrease in approvals for refinancing loans. The number of new applications increased by 22.8%. 

The proportion of new loans approved at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate increased to 85.2% from 76.0% in April, while the proportion of new approvals priced with reference to rates other than the best lending rate or fixed rates decreased to 11.3% from 20.6% over the same period. 

The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased by 0.3% to HK$532.5 billion.

The mortgage delinquency ratio improved to a record low of 0.16%. With the rescheduled loan ratio falling to 0.25% in May, the combined ratio also improved to a record low of 0.42%¹.

Annex

For further enquiries, please contact:
Sara Yip, Manager (Press), at 2878 8246 or
Hing-fung Wong, Officer (Press), at 2878 1802

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
25 June 2007

¹Not the sum of the two ratios, due to rounding.