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New mortgage loans drawn down during October were little changed at $9.7 billion, a decline of 0.5% compared to the previous month, according to the 23 authorised institutions (AIs) which participate in the HKMA¡¯s monthly survey of residential mortgage lending.
New loans approved increased by 2.0% to $11.8 billion. The increase was due to rises of $0.2 billion (+2.7%) in approvals for secondary market transactions and of $0.4 billion (+17.7%) in approvals for refinancing. These increases more than offset the $0.3 billion (-10.5%) decrease in approvals for primary market transactions. The number of new applications also increased, by 7.4%.
The proportion of new loans approved at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate increased to 58.1% from 55.9% in September, while the proportion of new approvals priced with reference to rates other than the best lending rate or fixed rates decreased to 34.8% from 35.9% a month earlier.
The outstanding value of mortgage loans was unchanged at $526 billion.
The mortgage delinquency ratio edged up to 0.21% after remaining at 0.20% for five consecutive months. With the rescheduled loan ratio edging down to 0.28%, the combined ratio was steady at 0.49%.
Ends/Friday, November 24, 2006
Issued at HKT 16:30
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