The 25 authorized institutions that participate in the HKMA's monthly survey of residential mortgage lending reported a decrease of 14.5% in new loans drawn down during August to HK$9.2 billion.
New loans approved by the institutions during August also fell, by 0.5% to HK$11.7 billion. The fall was largely due to the 19.6% (HK$691 million) decrease in approvals for primary market transactions, which outweighed the 13.8% (HK$639 million) increase in those relating to secondary market transactions. Approvals for refinancing loans also declined, by 0.3% (HK$10 million).
The proportion of new approvals priced at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate increased further to 66.1% from 65.3% in July, while that for fixed rate mortgages advanced to 15.4% from 12.0% in July.
The outstanding amount of mortgage loans edged down to HK$523.3 billion.
The mortgage delinquency ratio improved further to 0.50% from 0.54% in July. With the rescheduled loan ratio remaining unchanged at 0.50%, the combined ratio improved to 1.00% from 1.04%.
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
27 September 2004