According to the HKMA's monthly survey of residential mortgage
lending, new loans drawn down during April decreased by 12.3% to
HK$11.5 billion after recording strong growth in the previous two
months. New approvals also declined in April, by 22.7% in value
terms, to HK$12.4 billion; and by 21.4% in number terms, to 8,161
cases. This was driven by decreases of 48.6% and 18.3% in approvals
for primary market and secondary market transactions respectively,
outweighing the 10.2% increase in new approvals for refinancing
loans. The number of new applications recorded a decrease of
24.6%.
The proportion of new approvals priced at more than 2.5% below
the best lending rate reduced to 62.9% from 63.8% in March but that
for fixed-rate mortgages increased to 10.0% from 8.7% in March.
The outstanding amount of mortgage loans edged up by 0.1% to
HK$525.8 billion.
The improvement in the quality of the mortgage portfolio
continued. The mortgage delinquency ratio dropped to 0.66% from
0.70% in March while the rescheduled loan ratio increased slightly
to 0.50% from 0.49%. The combined ratio improved to 1.15%1 from 1.19%.
"While there was a decline, mortgage lending in April was still
high in relation to the average level of the past few years. This
minor correction may be good for the overall future development of
a more healthy market," commented Mr William Ryback, Deputy Chief
Executive of the HKMA.
For further enquiries, please contact:
Jasmin Fung, Manager (Press), at 2878 8246 or
Kevin Ip, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687
Hong Kong Monetary Authority
28 May 2004
1 Not the sum of the two
ratios, due to rounding.
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].