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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 February 2012.
Mortgage loans drawn down during February increased by 25.8% compared with January to HK$7.6 billion.
Mortgage loans approved in February rose by 44.1% compared with January to HK$14.4 billion. Among these, mortgage loans financing primary market transactions increased by 9.1% to HK$3.3 billion and those financing secondary market transactions increased by 68.9% to HK$9.6 billion. Mortgage loans for refinancing also rose by 15.7% to HK$1.5 billion. The number of applications in February rose month-on-month by 82.5% to 10,485. The figures reflect an increase in residential property transaction volume. The low-base effect owing to the Chinese New Year holidays in January may also have contributed to the month-on-month increases.
New mortgage loans priced with reference to best lending rates decreased slightly from 93.6% in January to 91.3% in February, with majority priced within the range of 2.25% and 2.5%. New mortgage loans priced with reference to HIBOR increased from 2.9% in January to 3.4% in February.
The outstanding value of mortgage loans remained at around HK$799.8 billion at end-February.
In February, the mortgage delinquency ratio remained unchanged at 0.01% and the rescheduled loan ratio remained unchanged at 0.02%.
Ends/Monday, March 26, 2012
Issued at HKT 16:48
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