Residential Mortgage Survey Results for November 2002

New mortgage lending remained depressed in November, according to the HKMA's monthly survey of residential mortgage lending.

New loans drawn down during the month decreased by 6.4 % to HK$6.7 billion. New loans approved also decreased, by 22.0% to HK$6.0 billion, with most of the reduction in relation to primary market transactions.

The proportion of new approvals that were priced at more than 2% below the best lending rate reduced marginally to 89.4%.

The amount of outstanding mortgage loans was flat at HK$535.3 billion.

The mortgage delinquency ratio remained unchanged at 1.11% while the rescheduled loan ratio increased slightly to 0.47% from 0.46%. The combined ratio thus increased to 1.58% from 1.57%.

Gross loans for the purchase of properties in Mainland China decreased to HK$167 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 December 2002

Annex

Residential Mortgage Survey

Notes to Annex

1. The Residential Mortgage Survey is a continuous monthly survey covering 28 authorized institutions in the banking industry.
2. 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.
3. Gross new loans made are new mortgage loans drawn down during the surveyed month.
4. 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".
5. Delinquency ratio is measured by a ratio of total amount of overdue loans to total outstanding loans.
6. Rescheduled loan ratio is measured by a ratio of total amount of rescheduled loans to total outstanding loans.
7. 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.
8. 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.