New mortgage lending picked up in September, according to the HKMA's monthly survey of residential mortgage lending.
New loans drawn down during the month increased by 39.5% to HK$8.6 billion. New loans approved also increased, by 19.6% to HK$9.0 billion, driven by a 75.3% increase in primary market transactions. New approvals for refinancing loans and secondary market transactions, however, declined by around 20% during the month.
89.6% of new loans approved were priced at more than 2% below the best lending rate, up from 86.0% in August.
The amount of outstanding mortgage loans increased by 0.3% to HK$537.1 billion.
The mortgage delinquency ratio fell to 1.08% and the rescheduled loan ratio, to 0.46%. The combined ratio thus decreased to 1.54% from 1.56% in August.
"Although the mortgage delinquency and rescheduled loan ratios improved slightly, banks should remain watchful of the quality of their mortgage portfolios in view of the weak economic environment," said Mr David Carse, Deputy Chief Executive of the HKMA.
Gross loans for the purchase of properties in Mainland China increased to HK$333 million, and the amount of outstanding loans was HK$6.2 billion.
For further enquiries, please contact:
Sylvia Yip, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687 or
Thomas Chan, Senior Manager (Press), at 2878 1480
Hong Kong Monetary Authority
30 October 2002
Annex
Residential Mortgage Survey
Notes to Annex
- The Residential Mortgage Survey is a continuous monthly survey covering 28 authorized institutions in the banking industry.
- Residential mortgage loans (RMLs) 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, the Private Sector Participation Scheme and the 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 reporting institutions is included in this survey.
- Average loan-to-value ratio and average contractual life for new loans approved during the surveyed month are average figures weighted by the amount of new loans approved during the surveyed month by individual reporting institutions.
