Mortgage loan approvals plunged in July

New residential mortgage loan (RML) approvals by local banks recorded a decrease of 21% month-to-month to MOP4.8 billion in July, according to statistics provided by the Monetary Authority of Macao.
New RMLs to residents, representing 98.6% of total RMLs, decreased by 21% to MOP4.7 billion, while non-resident RMLs also fell, falling by 22.2% to MOP67.1 million.
The monthly average value of new RMLs approved between May and July 2019 was MOP4.9 billion, up by 17.8% from the previous period (April to June 2019).
New RMLs collateralized by uncompleted units (i.e. equitable mortgage) decreased month-to-month by 34% to MOP306.6 million. On an annual basis, the new equitable mortgages approved dropped by 51.3%.
Meanwhile, commercial real estate loans (CRELs) fell by 33.3% month-to-month to MOP2.75 billion.
New CRELs to residents, which make up 98.8% of the total, dropped by 32.3% to MOP2.71 billion. The new CRELs to non-residents also fell by 69.3% to MOP33.4 million. The monthly average of new CRELs approved between May and July 2019 was MOP4.8 billion, down by 12.3% as compared with the previous period (April to June 2019).
Furthermore, at end-July 2019, the outstanding value of RMLs was MOP225.6 billion, up by 0.6% from last month, or 12.3% from last year.
The resident component made up 93.2% of this figure.
The outstanding value of CRELs decreased by 4% month-to-month or 8.1% from last year to MOP183.6 billion, attributable to the repayment of several large loans. Residents accounted for 93.4% of the loans. LV