Residential Mortgage Survey Results for January 2007

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 decreased by 19.4% to HK$11.3 billion.

New loans approved fell by 6.4% to HK$12.5 billion. The decline was due to decreases in approvals for primary market transactions (-HK$1.8 billion) and for refinancing loans (-HK$0.3 billion), which more than offset the HK$1.3 billion increase in approvals for secondary market transactions. The number of new applications increased, by 18.4%.

The proportion of new loans approved at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate increased to 61.6% from 61.0% in December, while the proportion of new approvals priced with reference to rates other than the best lending rate or fixed rates decreased to 33.4% from 34.2% over the same period.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans rose by 0.2% to HK$530.2 billion.

The mortgage delinquency ratio edged down to 0.18% from 0.20% in December. With the rescheduled loan ratio remaining unchanged at 0.26%, the combined ratio improved to 0.45%¹ from 0.46% a month earlier.

Annex

For further enquiries, please contact:
Hing-fung Wong, Officer (Press), at 2878 1802 or
Thomas Chan, Senior Manager (Press), at 2878 1480

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
23 February 2007

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