Residential Mortgage Survey Results for July 2004

The 25 authorized institutions which participate in the HKMA's monthly survey of residential mortgage lending reported a small increase in new loans drawn down during July, by 3.1% to HK$10.80 billion.

New loans approved by the institutions during July, on the other hand, fell slightly, by 0.4% to HK$11.74 billion. Approvals relating to primary market transactions increased by HK$0.72 billion (26%), but this was offset by a HK$0.56 billion (11%) reduction in those relating to secondary market transactions and a HK$0.20 billion (5%) reduction in those relating to refinancing.

The proportion of new approvals priced at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate increased to 65.3% from 62.6% in June, while that for fixed rate mortgages decreased to 12.0% from 14.4% in June.

The outstanding amount of mortgage loans edged up to HK$524.3 billion.

The mortgage delinquency ratio improved further to 0.54% from 0.57% in June. Together with the rescheduled loan ratio, which increased to 0.50% from 0.49% in June, the combined ratio improved to 1.04 from 1.07%.

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
27 August 2004

Annex

Notes to Annex