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The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced the results of the residential mortgage survey for December 2011.
New mortgage loans drawn down during December decreased by 15.8% to HK$8.9 billion compared with November.
New loans approved in December fell by 12.8% to HK$10.4 billion compared with November. Among these, approvals for primary market transactions increased by 25.7% to HK$2.8 billion while approvals for secondary market transactions decreased by 16.6% to HK$6.2 billion. Approvals for refinancing fell by 38.2% to HK$1.4 billion. The number of new applications in December fell by 14.6% compared with November to 6,039.
New mortgage loans priced with reference to best lending rates increased from 79.2% in November to 89.8% in December, with the largest portion priced within the range of 2.25% and 2.5%. New mortgage loans priced with reference to HIBOR decreased to 8.2% in December.
The outstanding value of mortgage loans decreased by 0.2% to HK$801.1 billion at end-December compared with end-November.
In December, the mortgage delinquency ratio remained unchanged at 0.01% and the rescheduled loan ratio remained unchanged at 0.02%.
Ends/Friday, January 27, 2012
Issued at HKT 16:33
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