Residential mortgage loans decrease in Feb

New approvals of residential mortgage loans and commercial real estate loans decreased month-to-month in February 2018, according to statistics released by the Monetary Authority of Macao on Wednesday. New residential mortgage loans approved by local banks also dropped by 28.4 percent month-to-month to MOP2.6 billion. The monthly average of new residential mortgage loans approved between December 2017 and February 2018 was MOP3.1 billion, down by 13.5 percent from the previous period (November 2017 to January 2018).  New commercial real estate loans dropped by 47.7 percent month-to-month to MOP6.8 billion. The monthly average of new commercial real estate loans approved between December 2017 and February 2018 was MOP8.4 billion, a slight increase of 0.9 percent compared to the previous period (November 2017 to January 2018).   The delinquency ratio for residential mortgage loans was 0.22 percent at the end of February 2018, up 0.02 percentage points month-to-month or 0.03 percentage points year-on-year. The ratio for commercial real estate loans was 0.14 percent, virtually unchanged from the previous month.