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The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced today (January 29) the results of its latest survey on residential mortgage loans (RMLs) in negative equity*.
At end-December 2015, the estimated number of RMLs in negative equity was 95 cases**. This was the first time the surveyed authorised institutions reported negative equity cases since end-September 2014. These cases were mainly related to staff housing loans of banks, which have higher loan-to-value ratios.
At end-December 2015, the aggregate value of RMLs in negative equity amounted to HK$418 million and the unsecured portion of these loans amounted to HK$12 million.
Since the first quarter of 2011, there have been no RMLs in negative equity with delinquencies of more than three months.
* The mortgage portfolio of the surveyed authorised institutions represents about 99% of the industry total. The survey results have been extrapolated to approximate the position of the banking sector as a whole.
** The figures derived from the survey relate only to RMLs provided by authorised institutions on the basis of first mortgages and which the reporting institution knows to be in negative equity (i.e. the outstanding loan amount with the reporting institution exceeds the current market value of the mortgaged property). Not included in these figures are some RMLs associated with co-financing schemes which would be in negative equity if the second mortgages were taken into account. The extent to which such RMLs are in negative equity is not known because authorised institutions do not maintain records on the outstanding balances of the second mortgages.
Ends/Friday, January 29, 2016
Issued at HKT 18:29
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