Hong Kong Government Press Release
31st January 2023 – (Hong Kong) The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced the results of the residential mortgage survey for December 2022.
The number of mortgage applications in December decreased month-on-month by 3.6 per cent to 7,510.
Mortgage loans approved in December decreased by 9.4 per cent compared with November to HK$25.6 billion. Among these, mortgage loans financing primary market transactions decreased by 14.3 per cent to HK$7 billion and those financing secondary market transactions increased by 0.4 per cent to HK$12.5 billion. Mortgage loans for refinancing decreased by 20.2 per cent to HK$6 billion.
Mortgage loans drawn down during December increased by 2.8 per cent compared with November to HK$21.9 billion.
The ratio of new mortgage loans priced with reference to HIBOR decreased from 70.2 per cent in November to 67.5 per cent in December. The ratio of new mortgage loans priced with reference to best lending rates increased from 16.6 per cent in November to 26 per cent in December.
The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased month-on-month by 0.4 per cent to HK$1,809.9 billion at end-December.
The mortgage delinquency ratio increased slightly to 0.06 per cent and the rescheduled loan ratio remained unchanged at nearly 0 per cent.
Meanwhile, the estimated number of residential mortgage loans (RMLs) in negative equity increased to 12,164 cases at end-December 2022 from 533 cases at end-September 2022. These cases were related to bank staff housing loans or RMLs under mortgage insurance programme, which generally have a higher loan-to-value ratio.
The aggregate value of RMLs in negative equity increased to HK$66,252 million at end-December 2022 compared with HK$3,006 million at end-September 2022.
The unsecured portion of these loans increased to HK$2,517 million at end-December 2022 from HK$59 million at end-September 2022.
Since the first quarter of 2011, there have been no RMLs in negative equity with delinquencies of more than three months.