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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 March 2013.
Mortgage loans drawn down during March increased by 52.0% compared with February to HK$18.6 billion.
Mortgage loans approved in March increased by 16.1% compared with February to HK$21.6 billion. Among these, mortgage loans financing primary market transactions increased by 69.5% to HK$5.1 billion and those financing secondary market transactions increased by 0.6% to HK$13.0 billion. Mortgage loans for refinancing increased by 30.5% to HK$3.5 billion.
The number of mortgage applications in March increased by 14.2% month-on-month to 10,291. The low-base effect owing to the Chinese New Year holidays in February may have contributed to the month-on-month increase. Compared with January 2013, the number of mortgage applications in March declined by 13.8%.
New mortgage loans priced with reference to best lending rates increased from 86.4% in February to 87.6% in March, with majority priced within the range of 2% and 2.25%. New mortgage loans priced with reference to HIBOR decreased from 11.4% in February to 10.7% in March.
The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased month-on-month by 0.8% to HK$884.1 billion at end-March.
The mortgage delinquency ratio remained unchanged at 0.01%. The rescheduled loan ratio decreased from 0.01% in February to nearly 0% in March.
Ends/Friday, April 26, 2013
Issued at HKT 18:04
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