Residential loans record increase

New approvals of residential mortgage loans (RMLs) rose by 31.9 percent month-to-month to MOP9.7 billion, the Monetary Authority of Macau announced in a statement.

New RMLs to residents, accounting for 86.2 percent of the total, rose by 15.9 percent to MOP8.3 billion.  

Mainly attributed to new enterprise loans with high denomination, the non-resident component increased to MOP1.3 billion.

The monthly average of new RMLs approved between July and September 2018 was MOP7.4 billion, up by 11.4 percent from the previous period (June to August 2018). 

Meanwhile, commercial real estate loans (CRELs) dropped by 65.8 percent in the previous month to MOP3.3 billion. Within this total, new CRELs to residents, which occupied 99.8 percent of the total, decreased by 61.9 percent to MOP3.3 billion, while those to non-residents fell to MOP5.2 million.

The monthly average of new CRELs approved between July and September 2018 was MOP5.7 billion, down by 15.2 percent compared with the previous period (June to August 2018). 

As at end-September 2018, the outstanding value of RMLs was MOP211.1 billion, up by 3.5 percent from the previous month, or 12.1 percent from a year ago. The resident component made up 92.6 percent of the total.

The outstanding value of CRELs was MOP187.2 billion, up by 1.6 percent month-to-month or 7.8 percent from the previous year.  Residents accounted for 93.2 percent of the loans.  Compared to a month earlier, outstanding CRELs to residents and to non-residents rose by 1.7 percent and 0.5 percent respectively.