Mortgage loans drop 16%

August 25, 2011

There were $20.2 billion in new mortgage loans drawn down in July, a fall of 16% on June.
 
The Monetary Authority announced today new loans approved fell 33.7% to $17.6 billion.
 
Approvals for primary and secondary market transactions dropped by $1 billion (26.4%) and $6.3 billion (34.7%), while those for refinancing went down $1.6 billion (35.6%).
 
The number of new applications fell 22.6% to 9,221.
 
The authority said the decline in figures reflected the fall in transaction volume in June and July.
 
About 26% of the new mortgage loans approved in July were priced with reference to best lending rates, with the largest portion in the price range of 2% to less than 2.25%.
 
The proportion of new mortgage loans priced with reference to Hang Seng Interbank Offered Rates dropped to 72.9% from 79.9% in June.
 
The outstanding value of mortgage loans rose 0.8% to $794.3 billion.