Residential Mortgage Survey Results for March 2008

Press Releases

25 Apr 2008

Residential Mortgage Survey Results for March 2008

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 March 2008 increased by 12.3% to HK$20.6 billion.

New loans approved increased by 5.2% to HK$24.7 billion. The increase was due to increases of HK$1.4 billion (+89.1%) in approvals for primary market transactions and of HK$1.0 billion (+35.1%) in approvals for refinancing loans, which more than offset the HK$1.2 billion (-6.6%) decrease in approvals for secondary market transactions. The number of new applications increased by 13.8%.

The proportion of new loans approved at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate increased to 90.0% from 89.0% in February, as the proportion of approvals for HIBOR-based loans1 decreased.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased by 0.9% to HK$574.8 billion.

The mortgage delinquency ratio and rescheduled loan ratio declined to 0.09% and 0.17% respectively, driving the combined ratio to a record low of 0.27%.2

Annex

For further enquiries, please contact:
Thomas Chan, Senior Manager (Press), at 2878 1480 or
Peggy Lo, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
25 April 2008

1 Mortgage loans priced with reference to Hong Kong Interbank Offered Rates.

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

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Last revision date : 25 April 2008