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 From Hong Kong's Information Services Department
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February 23, 2007
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Housing
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New mortgage loan approvals dip 6.4%
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Monetary Authority logo

The value of new residential mortgage loans drawn down in December fell 19.4% to $11.3 billion, the Monetary Authority says. New loans approved also fell 6.4% to $12.5 billion.

 

The fall was due to decreases of $1.8 billion in approvals for primary market transactions, and $300 million in approvals for refinancing loans, which more than offset the $1.3 billion increases in approvals for secondary market transactions. The number of new applications rose 18.4%.

 

The proportion of new loans approved at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate increased to 61.6% from 61% in December, while the proportion of new approvals priced with reference to rates other than the best lending rate or fixed rates fell to 33.4% from 34.2% over the same period.  

 

The outstanding value of mortgage loans rose 0.2% to $530.2 billion.

 

The mortgage delinquency ratio edged down to 0.18% from 0.2% in December. With the rescheduled loan ratio remained unchanged at 0.26%, the combined ratio improved to 0.45% from 0.46% a month earlier.