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According to the 23 authorised institutions (AIs) that participate in the HKMA's monthly survey of residential mortgage lending, new mortgage loans drawn down during March were little changed at HK$7.5 billion.
New loans approved by the AIs increased significantly by 63.0% to HK$12.6 billion. The increase was across-the-board in both value and number terms. In value terms, the approvals for refinancing loans recorded a large increase of 162.3% (+HK$1.5 billion), reflecting intense competition in the market. The approvals for primary and secondary market transactions rose by 76.6% (+HK$0.9 billion) and 44.4% (+HK$2.5 billion) respectively. The number of new applications also increased strongly, by 65.0%.
The proportion of new loan approvals priced at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate almost doubled to 57.5% from 30.2% in February, and continued to be the most commonly used interest rate band for new approvals in March.
The outstanding value of mortgage loans fell by 0.5% to HK$528.5 billion.
The mortgage delinquency ratio edged down to 0.19% from 0.20% a month earlier. With the rescheduled loan ratio remaining unchanged at 0.34%, the combined ratio improved to 0.53% from 0.54% in February.
For further enquiries, please contact:
Ying-ying Cheng, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687 or
Hing-Fung Wong, Resource Co-ordinator, at 2878 1802
Ends/Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Issued at HKT 16:30
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