Hong Kong’s mortgage drawdowns up 67.5%

7% of the approved new mortgage loans were priced with reference to best lending rates.

New mortgage loans drawn down during March increased 67.5% to $30.6 billion compared with February, while new loans approved rose 43.5% to $43.5 billion.

The Monetary Authority said on Fridayd approvals for primary and secondary market transactions rose by $3.3 billion (+134.8%) and $5.7 billion (+25.1%) while those for refinancing transactions increased by $4.2 billion or 81.2%. The number of new applications increased 32.5% to 23,153.

About 7% of the new mortgage loans approved 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 HIBOR decreased to 91.7% from 92% in February.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased 0.8% to $761.7 billion, according to a Monetary Authority report.

The mortgage delinquency ratio remained unchanged at 0.01% while the rescheduled loan ratio fell to a record low of 0.03% in March.