Residential mortgage loans in negative equity March quarter 2010

Press Releases

27 Apr 2010

Residential mortgage loans in negative equity March quarter 2010

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced today (Tuesday) the results of its latest survey on residential mortgage loans (RMLs) in negative equity1.

The estimated number of RMLs in negative equity decreased to 303 cases2 at end-March 2010 from 466 cases at end-December 2009. The aggregate value of RMLs in negative equity declined to HK$0.4 billion at end-March 2010 from HK$0.7 billion at end-December 2009.

The unsecured portion of these loans hovered around HK$0.1 billion. The three-month delinquency ratio3 of the RMLs in negative equity fell to 0.24% from 0.57% at end-December 2009.

Annex

For further enquiries, please contact:
Yokee Wong, Manager (Communications), at 2878 1213 or
Natalie Wu, Officer (Communications), at 2878 8246

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
27 April 2010

1The mortgage portfolio of the surveyed authorized institutions represents about 98% of the industry total. The survey results have been extrapolated to approximate the position of the banking sector as a whole.

2The figures derived from the survey relate only to RMLs provided by authorized institutions on the basis of first mortgages and which the reporting institution knows to be in negative equity (i.e. the outstanding loan amount with the reporting institution exceeds the current market value of the mortgaged property). Not included in these figures are some RMLs associated with co-financing schemes which would be in negative equity if the second mortgages were taken into account. The extent to which such RMLs are in negative equity is not known because authorized institutions do not maintain records on the outstanding balances of the second mortgages.

3RMLs in negative equity delinquent for more than three months as a percentage of total RMLs in negative equity.

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Last revision date : 27 April 2010