Residential Mortgage Survey Results for December 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 December increased by 14.3% to HK$21.4 billion.

New loans approved declined by 17.6% to HK$22.8 billion.  The decrease was for approvals for all types of property transaction.  Approvals for primary market transactions decreased by HK$1.0 billion or 35.1%, secondary market transactions by HK$3.3 billion or 14.9%, and refinancing loans by HK$0.7 billion or 21.4%.  The number of new applications also decreased by 22.5%.

The proportion of new loans approved at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate decreased to 87.9% from 90.9% in November, as the proportion of new approvals for HIBOR-based loans¹ increased.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased by 0.6% to HK$557.9 billion.

The mortgage delinquency ratio and rescheduled loan ratio were stable at 0.11% and 0.20% respectively in December.  The combined ratio improved to a record low of 0.31%.

Annex

For further enquiries, please contact:
Thomas Chan, Senior Manager (Press), at 2878 1480 or
Peggy Lo, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
25 January 2008

¹Mortgage loans priced with reference to Hong Kong Interbank Offered Rates.