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The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced the results of the residential mortgage survey for May 2011.
New mortgage loans drawn down during May decreased by 1.4% to HK$26.5 billion compared with April.
New loans approved in May rose by 14.8% to HK$31.6 billion. Approvals for primary market transactions and secondary market transactions increased by HK$1.2 billion (+27%) and HK$3.1 billion (+17.9%) respectively, while those for refinancing decreased by HK$0.2 billion (-4%). The number of new applications in May increased by 15.6% to 17 084.
The increase in new loan applications in May reflects more active residential property transactions in May compared to the low volume in April. It may also be a result of the low-base effect because of the intervening Easter holidays in April. The number of new applications in May is lower than the monthly new applications between January and March this year.
Around 12% of the new mortgage loans approved in May were priced with reference to best lending rates, with the largest portion in the price range of 2% to less than 2.25%. The proportion of new mortgage loans priced with reference to Hong Kong interbank offer rates (HIBOR) decreased to 87.2% from 89.8% in April.
The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased by 1.3% to HK$780.1 billion.
The mortgage delinquency ratio decreased slightly to 0.01% while the rescheduled loan ratio remained unchanged at 0.03% in May.
Ends/Monday, June 27, 2011
Issued at HKT 17:46
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