*****************************************************
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 2013.
Mortgage loans drawn down during December increased by 7.9% compared with November to HK$12.0 billion.
Mortgage loans approved in December decreased by 5.7% compared with November to HK$13.8 billion. Among these, mortgage loans financing primary market transactions increased by 13.4% to HK$3.9 billion and those financing secondary market transactions decreased by 9.2% to HK$7.3 billion. Mortgage loans for refinancing decreased by 17.8% to HK$2.5 billion.
The number of mortgage applications in December increased by 0.4% month-on-month to 7,594.
New mortgage loans priced with reference to best lending rates increased from 67.1% in November to 67.7% in December, with majority priced within the range of 2% and 2.25%. New mortgage loans priced with reference to HIBOR remained unchanged at 30.5% in December.
The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased month-on-month by 0.1% to HK$904.6 billion at end-December.
The mortgage delinquency ratio remained unchanged at 0.02% and the rescheduled loan ratio remained unchanged at nearly 0%.
Ends/Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Issued at HKT 17:11
NNNN
