Residential Mortgage Survey Results for July 2009

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 increased by 27.5% to HK$26.0 billion compared with June.

New loans approved fell by 3.0% to HK$37.3 billion. The decline was mainly due to a HK$3.2 billion or 34.0% reduction in primary market transactions. Meanwhile, approvals for secondary market transactions increased by HK$2.0 billion or 8.1% and approvals for refinancing loans remained little changed. The number of new applications declined to 18,855 compared with 24,511 in June.

Around 55% of the new mortgage loans approved in July were priced at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate, compared with 52% in June. The proportion of new mortgage loans priced with reference to rates other than the best lending rate (mostly HIBOR) declined to 39.2% in July from 39.8% in June.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased by 1.9% to HK$612.5 billion.

While the mortgage delinquency ratio rose marginally to 0.06%, the rescheduled loan ratio remained unchanged at 0.12% in July.

Annex

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

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
26 August 2009