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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 decreased by 19.4% to HK$11.3 billion.
New loans approved fell by 6.4% to HK$12.5 billion. The decline was due to decreases in approvals for primary market transactions (-HK$1.8 billion) and for refinancing loans (-HK$0.3 billion), which more than offset the HK$1.3 billion increase in approvals for secondary market transactions. The number of new applications increased, by 18.4%.
The proportion of new loans approved at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate increased to 61.6% from 61.0% in December, while the proportion of new approvals priced with reference to rates other than the best lending rate or fixed rates decreased to 33.4% from 34.2% over the same period.
The outstanding value of mortgage loans rose by 0.2% to HK$530.2 billion.
The mortgage delinquency ratio edged down to 0.18% from 0.20% in December. With the rescheduled loan ratio remaining unchanged at 0.26%, the combined ratio improved to 0.45%* from 0.46% a month earlier.
* Not the sum of the two ratios, due to rounding.
For further enquiries, please contact:
Hing-fung Wong, Officer (Press), at 2878 1802 or
Thomas Chan, Senior Manager (Press), at 2878 1480
Ends/Friday, February 23, 2007
Issued at HKT 16:41
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