According to the HKMA's monthly survey of residential mortgage
lending, activity in residential mortgage loans remained strong in
March.
New loans drawn down during March rose by 39.0% to HK$13.1
billion, the highest since mid-1999. New approvals in March also
increased: in value terms by 27.0% to HK$16.0 billion; and in
number terms by 29.1% to 10,377 cases. The growth was driven by the
48.0% increase in number of new approvals for secondary market
transactions and the 83.3% increase in refinancing loans, which
more than offset the 11.7% decrease in primary market transactions.
The number of new applications for mortgages registered an increase
of 21.0%.
The proportion of new approvals priced at more than 2.5% below
the best lending rate declined to 63.8% from 66.7% in February.
However, the proportion of new approvals priced other than with
reference to the best lending rate (primarily fixed rate mortgages)
increased to 12.6% from 8.0% in February.
The outstanding amount of mortgage loans increased further by
0.4% to HK$525.3 billion.
The quality of the mortgage portfolio continued to improve. The
mortgage delinquency ratio and the rescheduled loan ratio dropped
to 0.70% and 0.49% respectively from 0.79% and 0.51% in February.
As a result, the combined ratio improved to 1.19% from 1.30%.
"In anticipation of interest rate increases, fixed rate
mortgages have become more popular in recent months," said Mr
William Ryback, Deputy Chief Executive of the HKMA. "Banks offering
fixed rate mortgage products need to ensure that adequate controls
are in place to manage the associated interest rate risk."
For further enquiries, please contact:
Jasmin Fung, Manager (Press), at 2878 8246 or
Kevin Ip, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687
Hong Kong Monetary Authority
29 April 2004
Annex
Residential Mortgage Survey
Notes to Annex
- The Residential Mortgage Survey is a continuous monthly survey
covering 25 authorized institutions in the banking industry.
- Residential mortgage loans (RMLs) in this
survey are loans (including refinancing loans) to private
individuals for the purchase of residential properties, including
uncompleted units, but other than those properties under the Home
Ownership Scheme, the Private Sector Participation Scheme and the
Tenants Purchase Scheme.
- Gross new loans made are new mortgage loans
drawn down during the surveyed month.
- New loans approved are mortgage loans approved
during the surveyed month. The loans can either be drawn down in
the same month or in the following months. Loans that are approved
but not yet drawn, which have implications for the amount of gross
new loans made in the following months, are shown under the item
"New loans approved during month but not yet drawn".
- Delinquency ratio is measured by a ratio of
total amount of overdue loans to total outstanding loans.
- Rescheduled loan ratio is measured by a ratio
of total amount of rescheduled loans to total outstanding
loans.
- Co-financing schemes refer to those schemes
that involve provision of top-up finance by property developer(s)
or other co-financier(s) in addition to mortgage loans advanced by
authorized institutions. For loans associated with co-financing
schemes, only the portion of loans advanced by reporting
institutions is included in this survey.
- Average loan-to-value ratio and average contractual
life for new loans approved during the surveyed month are
average figures weighted by the amount of new loans approved during
the surveyed month by individual reporting institutions.
- Loans written off over the past 12 months as a
percentage of the average outstanding loans is calculated as: total
value of loans written off during the past 12-month period as a
percentage of the average outstanding loan value over the 12-month
period [i.e. (opening + closing), 2].