HKMA December approved new mortgage loans down 12.8%

Number of new applications in the month also fell 14.6% to 6,039.

New mortgage loans drawn down in December fell 15.8% to $8.9 billion, compared with November.

The Monetary Authority's residential mortgage survey for December found new loans approved during the month dropped 12.8% to $10.4 billion.

Approvals for primary market transactions grew 25.7% to $2.8 billion, while approvals for secondary market transactions decreased 16.6% to $6.2 billion, and approvals for refinancing fell 38.2% to $1.4 billion. The number of new applications dropped 14.6% to 6,039.

New mortgage loans priced with reference to best lending rates increased from 79.2% in November to 89.8% in December, with the largest portion priced within the range of 2.25% and 2.5%. New mortgage loans priced with reference to HIBOR decreased to 8.2%.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans decreased 0.2% to $801.1 billion. The mortgage delinquency ratio and the the rescheduled loan ratio remained unchanged at 0.01% and 0.02%.

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