New approvals of residential mortgage loans and commercial real estate loans both decreased between September and October, according to statistics released by the Monetary Authority of Macao. The trend suggests that buyers are adopting a wait-and-see attitude in Macao’s ailing property market, in spite of the bargain prices on offer.
In October, new residential mortgages approved by Macao banks fell by a whopping 57.4 percent month-on-month to 1.3 billion patacas (US$162.2 million). The monthly average of such mortgages approved between August and October was 1.87 billion patacas (US$233.4 million), up 0.6 percent from the July to September period.
New commercial real estate loans decreased by 37.9 percent month-on-month to 642.2 million patacas (US$80.2 million). The monthly average of such loans approved between August and October was 876.8 million patacas (US$109.5 million), down 32.7 percent when compared with the previous period.
[See more: Property sales and prices were down in the first half of November]
Meanwhile, the outstanding value of residential mortgages at the end of October was 219.52 billion patacas (US$27.4 billion), down 0.3 percent from the preceding month or 5 percent from a year ago. The outstanding value of commercial property loans fell by 0.6 percent month-on-month or 5.1 percent year-on-year to 152.14 billion (US$18.9 billion) patacas.
At the end of October, the delinquency ratio for residential mortgages stood at 3.4 percent – virtually unchanged from a month ago but up 2.6 percentage points compared to the same month in 2023.
The delinquency ratio for commercial loans was 5.1 percent, down 0.2 percentage points from a month ago but up 2.7 percentage points from the end of October last year.
