Residential Mortgage Survey Results for April 2006

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 April rose by 18.8% to HK$8.9 billion.

New loans approved by the AIs decreased by 9.1% to HK$11.5 billion. The decline was due to decreases of HK$347 million (-17.0%) in approvals for primary market transactions and of HK$921 million (-11.3%) in approvals for secondary market transactions, which more than offset the increase of HK$124 million (+5.2%) in approvals for refinancing. The number of new applications also decreased, by 33.5%.

The proportion of new loan approvals priced at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate rose to 65.8% from 57.5% in March, and continued to be the most commonly used interest rate band for new approvals in April.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans fell by 0.3% to HK$527.0 billion.

The mortgage delinquency ratio was unchanged at 0.19%. Although the rescheduled loan ratio edged down to 0.33% from 0.34% in March, the combined ratio was little changed at 0.53%.¹

For further enquiries, please contact:
Ying-ying Cheng, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687 or
Hing-Fung Wong, Resource Co-ordinator, at 2878 1802

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
25 May 2006

¹ Not the sum of the two ratios, due to rounding.

Annex