2010年2月19日星期五

HSBC to Sell Mortgages in Hong Kong Using Hibor Rate

"HSBC to Sell Mortgages in Hong Kong Using Hibor Rate | AboutHK.Com - More Information About HK"

Bloomberg

HSBC to Sell Mortgages in Hong Kong Using Hibor RateHSBC Holdings Plc will start selling mortgages in Hong Kong linked to the rate for interbank lending, a form of home financing that has gained popularity as record- low interest rates helped drive a housing boom last year.

Hong Kong’s biggest bank by deposits and assets will offer mortgage rates as low as 0.65 percentage point above the one- month Hong Kong Interbank Offered Rate until April 30, it said in an e-mailed statement today. The one-month Hibor stands at 0.069 percent.

The addition of Hibor-based rates by London-based HSBC, whose chief executive officer relocated to Hong Kong this month, may intensify a mortgage price war that has squeezed profitability at banks. HSBC ranks fourth in Hong Kong’s mortgage market, trailing BOC Hong Kong (Holdings) Ltd. and Standard Chartered Plc, both of which offer Hibor-based loans, according to Centaline Property Agency Ltd.

“Now is a fun time to be a homebuyer,” Wong Leung-sing, an associate director at Centaline, said before the announcement. “With their large customer base, HSBC should be able to gain a lot of new borrowers. It will be interesting to see how their competitors react.”

Mortgage rates in the Asian city of about 7 million people are already the lowest in at least 20 years, as far back as records are available, according to mReferral Mortgage Brokerage Services.

Growing Share

About 62 percent of new mortgage borrowers in Hong Kong paid interest based on Hibor in December, up from about 18 percent a year earlier, according to figures from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. With HSBC’s plan, that figure may jump to about 70 percent in six months, Wong said.

Other borrowers link their mortgages to the so-called best lending rate, which Hong Kong banks set at either 5 percent or 5.25 percent. Some lenders offer packages as low as 3.3 percentage points below those rates.

HSBC will cap its Hibor-based interest charges at 2.5 percentage points below its best lending rate, according to the statement.

Home prices in Hong Kong climbed about 30 percent last year, prompting the HKMA to warn of “sharp corrections” after a flood of speculative “hot money” from abroad, mainly mainland China. Prices for new mass-market homes in Hong Kong may climb 15 percent to 20 percent this year, Justin Chiu, an executive director at builder Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd. said last month.

--Editors: Joost Akkermans, Philip Lagerkranser

To contact the reporter on this story: Kelvin Wong in Hong Kong at +852-2977-6441 or kwong40@bloomberg.net This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Philip Lagerkranser at +852-2977-6626 or lagerkranser@bloomberg.net

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