The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:

     The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced the results of the residential mortgage survey for July 2017.
 
     The number of mortgage applications in July decreased month-on-month by 38% to 9,090.  

     Mortgage loans approved in July decreased by 23.5% compared with June to HK$33.7 billion.  Among these, mortgage loans financing primary market transactions decreased by 26.3% to HK$7.5 billion and those financing secondary market transactions decreased by 26.1% to HK$14.4 billion.  Mortgage loans for refinancing decreased by 18% to HK$11.8 billion. 

     Mortgage loans drawn down during July increased by 1.2% compared with June to HK$32.4 billion. 

     The ratio of new mortgage loans priced with reference to HIBOR remained unchanged at 95.9% in July. The ratio of new mortgage loans priced with reference to best lending rates increased from 1.6% in June to 2% in July.

     The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased month-on-month by 1% to HK$1,172 billion at end-July. 

     The mortgage delinquency ratio remained unchanged at 0.03% and the rescheduled loan ratio remained unchanged at nearly 0%.

Ends/Thursday, August 31, 2017
Issued at HKT 16:30

NNNN