Residential Mortgage Survey Results for August 2009

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 August declined by 23.3% to HK$19.9 billion compared with July.

New loans approved fell by 8.2% to HK$34.2 billion. The decline was mainly due to reductions of HK$1.1 billion or 18.2% in primary market transactions and of HK$2.7 billion or 9.8% in approvals for secondary market transactions. Conversely, approvals for refinancing loans increased by HK$0.7 billion or 19.5%. The number of new applications increased to 19,441 compared with 18,855 in July.

Around 47% of the new mortgage loans approved in August were priced at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate, compared with 55% in July. The proportion of new mortgage loans priced with reference to rates other than the best lending rate (mostly HIBOR) increased to 49.8% in August from 39.2% in July.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased by 0.9% to HK$618.0 billion.

The mortgage delinquency ratio and the rescheduled loan ratio fell marginally to 0.05% and 0.11% respectively in August.

Annex

For further enquiries, please contact:
Thomas Chan, Communications Chief, at 2878 1480 or
Hing-fung Wong, Manager (Communications), at 2878 1802

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
25 September 2009