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According to the 23 authorized institutions (AIs) which participate in the HKMA's monthly survey of residential mortgage lending, new mortgage loans drawn down during January fell by 20.3% to HK$6.0 billion.
New loans approved by the AIs decreased by 1.6% to HK$7.6 billion. The decline was due to decreases of HK$473 million (-27.2%) in approvals for primary market transactions and of HK$130 million (-14.6%) in approvals for refinancing, which more than offset the HK$484 million (+9.6%) increase in approvals for secondary market transactions. The number of new applications also decreased slightly, by 0.3%.
The proportion of new loan approvals priced at more than 2.25% and up to 2.5% below the best lending rate increased slightly to 39.0% from 38.3% in December, and continued to be the most commonly used interest rate band for new approvals in January.
The outstanding value of mortgage loans fell by 0.2% to HK$531.9 billion.
The mortgage delinquency ratio remained unchanged at 0.19%. With the rescheduled loan ratio edging down to 0.34% from 0.35%, the combined ratio improved to 0.53% from 0.54% in December.
For further enquiries, please contact:
Jasmin Fung, Manager (Press), at 2878 8246 or
Hing-Fung Wong, Resource Co-ordinator, at 2878 1802
Ends/Friday, February 24, 2006
Issued at HKT 16:31
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