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The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced the results of the residential mortgage survey for December 2012.
Mortgage loans drawn down during December decreased by 10.8% compared with November to HK$18.9 billion.
Mortgage loans approved in December decreased by 37.1% compared with November to HK$15.2 billion. Among these, mortgage loans financing primary market transactions decreased by 44.7% to HK$3.1 billion and those financing secondary market transactions decreased by 38.4% to HK$9.5 billion. Mortgage loans for refinancing decreased by 17.4% to HK$2.6 billion.
The number of mortgage applications in December decreased by 29.9% month-on-month to 7,449.
New mortgage loans priced with reference to best lending rates decreased from 92.7% in November to 90.4% in December, with majority priced within the range of 2% and 2.25%. New mortgage loans priced with reference to HIBOR increased from 5.2% in November to 7.7% in December.
The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased month-on-month by 1.3% to HK$868.3 billion at end-December.
The mortgage delinquency ratio increased slightly from 0.01% in November to 0.02% in December. The rescheduled loan ratio remained unchanged at 0.01%.
Ends/Monday, January 28, 2013
Issued at HKT 17:04
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