Residential Mortgage Survey Results for September 2005

Press Releases

25 Oct 2005

Residential Mortgage Survey Results for September 2005

According to the 24 authorized institutions (AIs) which participate in the HKMA's monthly survey of residential mortgage lending, there was a slight decline, of 0.9%, in new mortgage loans drawn down during September to HK$8.5 billion.

New loans approved by the AIs fell by 1.6%, to HK$9.8 billion. The decline was due to decreases of HK$347 million (-4.4%) in approvals for secondary market transactions and of HK$50 million (-4.3%) in approvals for refinancing. These decreases more than offset the HK$237 million (+25.5%) increase in approvals for primary market transactions. The number of new applications also decreased, by 2.9%.

The proportion of new loan approvals priced at more than 2% and up to 2.25% below the best lending rate remained constant at 35.7%, and continued to be the most commonly used interest rate band for new approvals in September. After falling for two consecutive months, the proportion of new loan approvals priced at more than 2.25% and up to 2.5% below the best lending rate increased to 27.3% from 19.3% in August. The share of new approvals for fixed rate mortgages also increased, to 1.9% from only 0.1% in August.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans fell by 0.3% to HK$538.6 billion.

The mortgage delinquency ratio edged down to 0.18% from 0.19% a month earlier. With the rescheduled loan ratio falling to 0.36% from 0.37%, the combined ratio improved to 0.54% from 0.56% in August.

For further enquiries, please contact:

Jasmin Fung, Manager (Press), at 2878 8246 or
Hing-Fung Wong, Resource Co-ordinator, at 2878 1802

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
25 October 2005

Annex

Notes to Annex

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Last revision date : 25 October 2005