New mortgage lending increased sharply in December, according to the HKMA's monthly survey of residential mortgage lending.
The amount of gross new loans made in December increased by 41.1% to HK$11.7 billion. The average size of new loans also increased to HK$1.39 million from HK$1.17 million in November.
After increasing strongly in November, new loans approved during December continued to grow but at a slower rate of 4.6% to HK$12.7 billion. While new approvals for transactions in the primary market increased further by 17.8% to account for 51.5% of total new loans approved, those for transactions in the secondary market and refinancing loans decreased to account for 31.8% and 16.7% of total new loans approved respectively. Loans approved during December but not yet drawn decreased by 12.0% to HK$7.1 billion.
The average loan-to-value ratio of new loans approved increased to 66.4% from 65.3% in November. The average contractual life lengthened to 223 months from 222 months. 98.9% of loans were related to owner-occupied properties.
On the pricing front, 87.2% of new loans approved were priced at more than 2% below the best lending rate, up from 83.6% in November.
The amount of outstanding mortgage loans increased by 0.8% following a 0.1% increase in November.
The loan delinquency ratio (measured by the ratio of mortgage loans overdue for more than 3 months to total outstanding mortgage loans) fell to 1.22% from 1.25% in November. The rescheduled loan ratio (measured by the ratio of rescheduled mortgage loans to total outstanding mortgage loans) increased to 0.26% from 0.25% in November.
"The delinquency ratio maintained its downward trend in December," said Mr David Carse, Deputy Chief Executive of the HKMA. "This reflects a combination of factors: reduced servicing costs, more repayments, the increase in outstanding loans as well as end-of-year write-offs."
Gross loans made for the purchase of properties in Mainland China increased to HK$137 million from HK$86 million in November. The amount of outstanding loans decreased by HK$54 million to HK$6.2 billion in December.
For further enquiries, please contact:
Jasmin Fung, Manager (Press), at 2878 8246 or
Sylvia Yip, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687
Hong Kong Monetary Authority
30 January 2002
Annex
Notes to Annex
- The Residential Mortgage Survey is a continuous monthly survey covering 29 authorized institutions in the banking industry.
- Residential mortgage loans in this survey are loans (including refinancing loans) to private individuals for the purchase of residential properties, including uncompleted units, but other than those properties under the Home Ownership Scheme, Private Sector Participation Scheme and Tenants Purchase Scheme.
- Gross new loans made are new mortgage loans drawn down during the surveyed month.
- New loans approved are mortgage loans approved during the surveyed month. The loans can either be drawn down in the same month or in the following months. Loans that are approved but not yet drawn, which have implications for the amount of gross new loans made in the following months, are shown under the item "New loans approved during month but not yet drawn".
- Delinquency ratio is measured by a ratio of total amount of overdue loans to total outstanding loans.
- Rescheduled loan ratio is measured by a ratio of total amount of rescheduled loans to total outstanding loans.
- Co-financing schemes refer to those schemes that involve provision of top-up finance by property developer(s) or other co-financier(s) in addition to mortgage loans advanced by authorized institutions. For loans associated with co-financing schemes, only the portion of loans advanced by authorized institutions is included in this survey.
- Average loan-to-value ratio and average contractual life are average figures weighted by the amount of new loans approved during the surveyed month by individual authorized institutions.
