There were another 300 cases of residential mortgage loans in negative equity for the quarter ending September, bringing the total to 9,000 cases with a combined value of $16 billion, the Monetary Authority says.

Despite the recent surge, the number of residential mortgage loans in negative equity has fallen 91% compared with the peak of about 106,000 cases at the end of June 2003.

The estimated unsecured portion of these negative-equity residential mortgage loans remained unchanged at $2 billion. Their overall loan-to-value ratio was 114%.

The loan quality of the negative-equity residential mortgage loans improved further, with the three-month delinquency ratio falling to 0.96% from 1.38% in the second quarter.