More residential and commercial property loan applications were approved in March than were in February, according to the latest figures from the Monetary Authority of Macao.
The value of new residential mortgage loans approved rose by 7.2 percent month-on-month, to 776.47 million patacas (US$97.06 million). Almost 99 percent of that value represented loans to local buyers.
The monthly average of new residential loans approved between January and March 2025 was 942.51 million patacas (US$117.81 million), down 7.6 percent from the previous rolling three-month period (December 2024 to February 2025).
New commercial real estate loans, meanwhile, were up by 27.4 percent month-on-month – amounting to 1.94 billion patacas (US$242.5 million). Just under 96 percent of that value represented loans to local buyers. The non-resident component dropped almost 70 percent month on month, to 80.34 million patacas (US$10.04 million).
[See more: Macao’s residential property price index continues to decline]
The monthly average of new commercial real estate loans approved between January and March 2025 was 1.64 billion patacas (US$205 million), up 34.3 percent when compared with the December 2024 to February 2025 period.
The outstanding value of residential mortgages totalled 215.71 billion patacas (US$26.96 billion), down by 0.4 percent month-on-month and 5.1 percent from a year ago. Outstanding commercial loans fell by 1 percent month on month or 5.9 percent year-on-year, to 148.45 billion patacas (US$18.56 billion).
At the end of March, the delinquency ratio for residential loans stood at 3.6 percent, the same as it was in February but up 0.2 percentage points over a year earlier. The ratio for commercial loans was 5.4 percent, up 0.1 percentage point from a month ago or 2.1 percentage points from March 2024.
March also saw the SAR’s residential property prices dip by almost 3 percent month-on-month, although the transaction numbers grew by 34 percent.
