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According to the 23 authorised institutions (AIs) which participate in the HKMA's monthly survey of residential mortgage lending, new mortgage loans drawn down during April rose by 18.8% to HK$8.9 billion.
New loans approved by the AIs decreased by 9.1% to HK$11.5 billion. The decline was due to decreases of HK$347 million (-17.0%) in approvals for primary market transactions and of HK$921 million (-11.3%) in approvals for secondary market transactions, which more than offset the increase of HK$124 million (+5.2%) in approvals for refinancing. The number of new applications also decreased, by 33.5%.
The proportion of new loan approvals priced at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate rose to 65.8% from 57.5% in March, and continued to be the most commonly used interest rate band for new approvals in April.
The outstanding value of mortgage loans fell by 0.3% to HK$527.0 billion.
The mortgage delinquency ratio was unchanged at 0.19%. Although the rescheduled loan ratio edged down to 0.33% from 0.34% in March, the combined ratio was little changed at 0.53%*.
* Not the sum of the two ratios, due to rounding.
For further enquiries, please contact:
Ying-ying Cheng, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687 or
Hing-Fung Wong, Resource Co-ordinator, at 2878 1802
Ends/Thursday, May 25, 2006
Issued at HKT 16:31
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