*************************************************
The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
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 July increased by 27.5% to HK$26.0 billion compared with June.
New loans approved fell by 3.0% to HK$37.3 billion. The decline was mainly due to a HK$3.2 billion or 34.0% reduction in primary market transactions. Meanwhile, approvals for secondary market transactions increased by HK$2.0 billion or 8.1% and approvals for refinancing loans remained little changed. The number of new applications declined to 18,855 compared with 24,511 in June.
Around 55% of the new mortgage loans approved in July were priced at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate, compared with 52% in June. The proportion of new mortgage loans priced with reference to rates other than the best lending rate (mostly HIBOR) declined to 39.2% in July from 39.8% in June.
The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased by 1.9% to HK$612.5 billion.
While the mortgage delinquency ratio rose marginally to 0.06%, the rescheduled loan ratio remained unchanged at 0.12% in July.
For further enquiries, please contact:
Thomas Chan, Communications Chief, at 2878 1480 or
Hing-fung Wong, Manager (Communications), at 2878 1802
Ends/Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Issued at HKT 16:30
NNNN