Residential Mortgage Survey Results for May 2004

Press Releases

29 Jun 2004

Residential Mortgage Survey Results for May 2004

According to the HKMA's monthly survey of residential mortgage lending, new loans drawn down during May decreased by 9.4% to HK$10.4 billion.

New approvals also declined in May, by 6.3% in value terms to HK$11.6 billion; and by 6.4% in number terms to 7,642 cases. The decline was attributable to the reduction in new approvals for primary and secondary market transactions, which fell by 31.3% and 12.0% respectively while refinancing loans grew by 24.3%. In terms of proportion, secondary market accounted for more than 50% of new approvals, while refinancing loans accounted for some 30%. The number of new applications was, however, up by 3.1%.

The proportion of new approvals priced at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate rose to 65.7% from 62.9% in April and that for fixed-rate mortgages increased slightly to 10.7% from 10.0% in April.

The outstanding amount of mortgage loans edged down by 0.2% to HK$524.9 billion.

The mortgage delinquency ratio improved further to 0.63% from 0.66% in April, while the rescheduled loan ratio declined to 0.49% from 0.50%. The combined ratio improved to 1.12% from 1.15%.

For further enquiries, please contact:

Jasmin Fung, Manager (Press), at 2878 8246 or
Thomas Chan, Senior Manager (Press) at 2878 1480

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
29 June 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 June 2004