Residential Mortgage Survey Results for January 2006

According to the 23 authorized institutions (AIs) which participate in the HKMA's monthly survey of residential mortgage lending, new mortgage loans drawn down during January fell by 20.3% to HK$6.0 billion.

New loans approved by the AIs decreased by 1.6% to HK$7.6 billion. The decline was due to decreases of HK$473 million (-27.2%) in approvals for primary market transactions and of HK$130 million (-14.6%) in approvals for refinancing, which more than offset the HK$484 million (+9.6%) increase in approvals for secondary market transactions. The number of new applications also decreased slightly, by 0.3%.

The proportion of new loan approvals priced at more than 2.25% and up to 2.5% below the best lending rate increased slightly to 39.0% from 38.3% in December, and continued to be the most commonly used interest rate band for new approvals in January.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans fell by 0.2% to HK$531.9 billion.

The mortgage delinquency ratio remained unchanged at 0.19%. With the rescheduled loan ratio edging down to 0.34% from 0.35%, the combined ratio improved to 0.53% from 0.54% in December.

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
24 February 2006

Annex