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 July fell by 16.6% to HK$10.4 billion.
New loans approved by the AIs decreased by 24.5% to HK$9.7 billion. The decline was across-the-board in both number and value terms. In value terms, primary market transactions fell by HK$1.4 billion (-43.0%), secondary market transactions by HK$1.1 billion (-14.9%) and refinancing loans by HK$0.7 billion (-27.3%). The number of new applications also decreased, by 13.6%.
The most commonly used interest rate band for new approvals in July continued to be more than 2.5% below the best lending rate. It was used in 67.4% of new approvals in July compared with 70.4% in June.
The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased by 0.1% to HK$527.6 billion.
The mortgage delinquency ratio was unchanged at 0.20%. With the rescheduled loan ratio decreasing to 0.30%, the combined ratio improved to 0.50% from 0.52% in June.
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 August 2006