New mortgage lending climbed at a slower pace last month, with the amount of new loans drawn down increasing 5.1% to $8.9 billion. This follows October's strong growth of 45%.

The month also saw further improvements to the quality of the mortgage portfolio as both the mortgage delinquency ratio and the rescheduled loan ratio declined from 0.99% and 0.56% in October to 0.97% and 0.54%, respectively.  As a result, the combined ratio improved to 1.51% from 1.55%.

Monetary Authority Acting Deputy Chief Executive YK Choi said mortgage lending remained reasonably buoyant in November.

"The continuing improvement in the asset quality of the mortgage portfolio is welcome, although asset quality still needs to be watched carefully," he added.

Primary market transactions fell

Loans approved during the month fell by 22.8% to $8.1 billion, mainly owing to a 33.9% slump in approvals for primary market transactions. The number of new applications for mortgages also dropped by almost a quarter.

The proportion of new approvals priced at more than 2% below the best lending rate dipped to 93.8% from 94.2% in October but the proportion at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate went up further, to 65.9%.

The outstanding amount of mortgage loans increased further by 0.2% to $522.3 billion. 

New loans drawn down for purchasing properties in the Mainland surged to $217 million, and the amount of outstanding loans was $6.5 billion.