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The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced the results of the residential mortgage survey for November 2010.
New mortgage loans drawn down during November rose by 11.1% to HK$27.9 billion compared with October.
Compared to a relatively low base in October, new loans approved in November grew by 22.0% to HK$37.6 billion. Approvals for secondary market transactions increased by HK$6.5 billion, or 35.2%, and those for refinancing transactions rose by HK$0.9 billion, or 10.8%. By contrast, approvals for primary market transactions declined by HK$0.6 billion, or 15.9%. The number of new applications rose by 13.2% to 23,060. The increase in new applications and loan approvals reflects the buoyant sentiment in the residential property market in October and the first half of November prior to the introduction of the new measures on property market by the Government and the HKMA on November 19.
Around 8% of the new mortgage loans approved in November, same as the previous month, were priced with reference to best lending rates. The majority of these loans were in the price range of 2% to less than 2.25%. The proportion of new mortgage loans priced with reference to HIBOR edged up slightly to 91.8% from 91.6% in October.
The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased by 1.2% to HK$731.3 billion.
Both the mortgage delinquency ratio and the rescheduled loan ratio remained unchanged at 0.02% and 0.04% respectively in November.
Ends/Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Issued at HKT 16:32
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