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The following is issued on behalf of Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
According to the 23 authorised institutions (AIs) which participate in the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA)'s monthly survey of residential mortgage lending, new mortgage loans drawn down during September 2008 decreased by 4.6% to HK$11.6 billion compared with August 2008.
New loans approved increased by 7.8% to HK$14.5 billion. The increase was mainly due to increases of HK$0.9 billion (+109.7%) in approvals for primary market transactions and of HK$0.2 billion (+5.9%) in approvals for refinancing loans. Meanwhile, the approval for secondary market transactions remained little changed at HK$9.9 billion. The number of new applications increased by 18.5%.
The proportion of new loans approved at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate increased to 83.1% from 82.8% in August.
The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased by 0.2% to HK$596.7 billion.
The mortgage delinquency ratio and rescheduled loan ratio remained unchanged at 0.05% and 0.14% respectively. The combined ratio remained at a record low of 0.19% in September.
For further enquiries, please contact:
Thomas Chan, Senior Manager (Press), at 2878 1480 or
Hing-fung Wong, Manager (Press), at 2878 1802
Ends/Monday, October 27, 2008
Issued at HKT 17:41
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