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The following is issued on behalf of the 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 May increased by 42.5% to HK$15.2 billion compared with April.
New loans approved increased by 28.4% to HK$28.1 billion, mainly driven by increases of 22.6% or HK$3.6 billion in approvals for secondary market transactions and of 48.1% or HK$2.1 billion in approvals for primary market transactions. Refinancing loans also rose by HK$0.5 billion. The number of new applications increased to 19,419 compared with 18,455 in April.
Around 53% of the new mortgage loans approved in May were priced at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate, compared with 28.6% in April. The proportion of new mortgage loans priced with reference to rates other than the best lending rate (mostly HIBOR) increased to 31.9% in May from 29.9% in April.
The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased by 0.8% to HK$593.8 billion.
Both the mortgage delinquency ratio and the rescheduled loan ratio remained unchanged at 0.05% and 0.13% respectively in May.
For further enquiries, please contact:
Thomas Chan, Communications Chief, at 2878 1480 or
Peggy Lo, Manager (Communications), at 2878 1687
Ends/Thursday, June 25, 2009
Issued at HKT 18:26
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