New mortgage lending picked up in March, according to the HKMA's monthly survey of residential mortgage lending.
Gross new loans made in March increased to HK$8.2 billion, following a marked decline in February. The average size of new loans increased to HK$1.38 million from HK$1.28 million in February.
In line with the increase in loan applications, new loans approved during March increased to HK$9.3 billion. While the proportion of new approvals for transactions in the primary market and refinancing loans rose to 44.4% and 17.8% of total new loans approved respectively, those in respect of the secondary market decreased to 37.8%. Loans approved during March but not yet drawn increased to HK$6.0 billion.
The average loan-to-value ratio of new loans approved edged up to 66.4%. The average contractual life remained unchanged at 225 months. 99.4% of loans were related to owner-occupied properties.
On the pricing front, 88.0% of new loans approved were priced at more than 2% below the best lending rate, up slightly from 87.4% in February. The proportion of new loans priced at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate increased further to 15.6% from 12.4% in February.
The amount of outstanding mortgage loans increased by 0.1% as in February.
The loan delinquency ratio (measured by the ratio of mortgage loans overdue for more than 3 months to total outstanding mortgage loans) decreased further to 1.18% from 1.20% at the end of February while the rescheduled loan ratio (measured by the ratio of rescheduled mortgage loans to total outstanding mortgage loans) increased to 0.38% from 0.34%.
"The mortgage delinquency ratio continued to improve. This can largely be explained by repayments of overdue loans and more rescheduling requests accommodated by the banks as reflected by the rise in the rescheduled loan ratio," said Mr David Carse, Deputy Chief Executive of the HKMA.
Gross loans made for the purchase of properties in Mainland China increased to HK$87 million from HK$73 million in February. The amount of outstanding loans increased by HK$20 million to HK$6.1 billion in March.
For further enquiries, please contact:
Jasmin Fung, Manager (Press), at 2878 8246 or
Sylvia Yip, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687
Hong Kong Monetary Authority
29 April 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.
