New loans approved down 12.8%

January 27, 2012

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%.