Residential Mortgage Survey Results for June 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 June rose by 24.5% to HK$12.5 billion.

New loans approved by the AIs decreased by 6.4% to HK$12.9 billion. The decline was due to decreases of HK$907 million (-11.4%) in approvals for secondary market transactions and of HK$21 million (-0.6%) in approvals for primary market transactions, which more than offset the HK$53 million (+2.1%) increase in approvals for refinancing. The number of new applications also decreased, by 15.5%.

The most commonly used interest rate band for new approvals in June continued to be more than 2.5% below the best lending rate. It was used in 70.4% of new approvals in June compared with 65.3% in May.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased by 0.3% to HK$527.3 billion.

The mortgage delinquency ratio was unchanged at 0.20%. With the rescheduled loan ratio decreasing to 0.31%, the combined ratio improved to 0.52%¹ from 0.53% in May.

Annex

For further enquiries, please contact:
Sara Yip, Manager (Press), at 2878 8246 or
Ying-ying Cheng, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
25 July 2006

¹Not the sum of the two ratios, due to rounding.