New mortgage lending in January maintained its recent recovery,
according to the HKMA's monthly survey of residential mortgage
lending.
Gross new loans made in January amounted to HK$11.5 billion,
which is similar to the figure for December 2001. The average size
of new loans decreased to HK$1.30 million from HK$1.39 million in
December.
New loans approved during January continued to grow, to a
twelve-month high of HK$12.8 billion. While the proportion of new
approvals for transactions in the primary market reduced to 46.5%
of total new loans approved, those in respect of the secondary
market and refinancing loans increased to 36.5% and 17.0%
respectively. Loans approved during January but not yet drawn
increased by 6.4% to HK$7.6 billion.
The average loan-to-value ratio of new loans approved was more
or less unchanged, at 66.2%. The average contractual life
lengthened further to 227 months from 223 months. 99.3% of loans
were related to owner-occupied properties.
On the pricing front, 87.6% of new loans approved were priced at
more than 2% below the best lending rate, up slightly from 87.2% in
December.
The amount of outstanding mortgage loans increased by 0.6%
following a 0.8% increase in December.
The loan delinquency ratio (measured by the ratio of mortgage
loans overdue for more than 3 months to total outstanding mortgage
loans) remained unchanged at 1.22%. The rescheduled loan ratio
(measured by the ratio of rescheduled mortgage loans to total
outstanding mortgage loans) increased to 0.30% from 0.26% in
December.
"It is encouraging that the delinquency ratio on residential
mortgage lending has not risen, in contrast to the recent sharp
rise in the delinquency ratio on credit card lending," said Mr
David Carse, Deputy Chief Executive of the HKMA. "Moreover, the
continued rise in the rescheduled loan ratio indicates that banks
are being accommodating in restructuring mortgage loans for their
customers."
Gross loans made for the purchase of properties in Mainland
China increased to HK$215 million from HK$137 million in December.
The amount of outstanding loans increased by HK$61 million to
HK$6.2 billion in January.
For further enquiries, please contact:
Jasmin Fung, Manager (Press), at 2878 8246 or
Sylvia Yip, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687
Hong Kong Monetary Authority
27 February 2002
Annex
Residential Mortgage Survey
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.
