Mortgage loans drop to $50.8b in April

This reflected a 4.3% month-on-month decrease.

Mortgage loans approved in April dropped 4.3% to $50.8b, compared to March, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) reported.

According to its Residential Mortgage Survey, loans that will fund primary market transactions declined 21.7% to $7.6b in April, whilst loans for refinancing were down 6.4% to $6.7b.

In contrast, loans financing secondary market transactions saw a slight increase of 0.8% to $36.5b.

Applications for mortgage loans also declined 7.7% month-on-month to 16,568. Likewise, mortgage loans drawn in April slipped 2.4% to $29.5b, compared to March.

Moreover, the HKMA reported the ratio of new mortgage loans priced with reference to the Hong Kong interbank offered rate stood at 96.7% in April. This is up from 95.7% in March.

Meanwhile, the ratio of new mortgage loans priced with reference to best lending rates decreased to 1.1% in April from 1.8% in March.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans climbed 0.7% MoM to $1.616t at the end of April. The mortgage delinquency ratio and the rescheduled loan ratio were unchanged at 0.04% and nearly 0%, respectively.