Residential Mortgage Survey Results for April 2012
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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 April 2012.

     Mortgage loans drawn down during April increased by 55.4% compared with March to HK$17.4 billion.

     Mortgage loans approved in April fell by 9.7% compared with March to HK$25.4 billion.  Among these, mortgage loans financing primary market transactions decreased by 27.5% to HK$3 billion and those financing secondary market transactions decreased by 8.3% to HK$20 billion.  Mortgage loans for refinancing increased by 11.3% to HK$2.4 billion.  The number of applications in April fell month-on-month by 23.2% to 13,375.

     New mortgage loans priced with reference to best lending rates decreased marginally from 91.9% in March to 91.4% in April, with majority priced within the range of 2% and 2.25%.  New mortgage loans priced with reference to HIBOR decreased from 5.5% in March to 4.9% in April.

     The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased month-on-month by 0.8% to HK$809.6 billion at end-April.

     In April, the mortgage delinquency ratio remained unchanged at 0.01% while the rescheduled loan ratio decreased to 0.01%, which has been the lowest level since September 2001 when the HKMA started to collect this information.

Ends/Friday, May 25, 2012
Issued at HKT 17:21

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