Residential Mortgage Survey Results for December 2003

Press Releases

29 Jan 2004

Residential Mortgage Survey Results for December 2003

According to the HKMA's monthly survey of residential mortgage lending, new loans drawn down during December decreased by 3.4% to HK$8.6 billion, reflecting a decline in new approvals in November.

However, in line with a 6.3% increase in new applications for mortgages in December, loans approved during the month rose by 5.9% to HK$8.6 billion.

The proportion of new approvals priced at more than 2% below the best lending rate decreased to 92.8% from 93.8% in November while the proportion at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate edged down to 65.5% from 65.9%.

The outstanding amount of mortgage loans was little changed at HK$522.2 billion.

The improvement in the quality of the mortgage portfolio continued, with the mortgage delinquency and rescheduled loan ratios dropping further to 0.86% and 0.52% respectively from 0.97% and 0.54% in November. As a result, the combined ratio improved to 1.38% from 1.51%.

"It is encouraging to see continuing improvement in the asset quality of banks' mortgage portfolios in line with the pick-up in the economy." said Mr William Ryback, Deputy Chief Executive of the HKMA. "Banks should however remain vigilant for any potential risks, such as interest rate risk, that may have an impact on the asset quality of the mortgage portfolio."

New loans drawn down for purchasing properties in Mainland China increased to HK$309 million. The amount of outstanding loans at end of the month remained unchanged at HK$6.5 billion.

For further enquiries, please contact:

Kevin Ip, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687 or
Thomas Chan, Senior Manager (Press), at 2878 1480

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
29 January 2004

Annex

Residential Mortgage Survey

Notes to Annex

  1. The Residential Mortgage Survey is a continuous monthly survey covering 25 authorized institutions in the banking industry.
  2. 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.
  3. Gross new loans made are new mortgage loans drawn down during the surveyed month.
  4. 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".
  5. Delinquency ratio is measured by a ratio of total amount of overdue loans to total outstanding loans.
  6. Rescheduled loan ratio is measured by a ratio of total amount of rescheduled loans to total outstanding loans.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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].
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Last revision date : 29 January 2004