Mortgage approvals in Hong Kong rebounded 22.8% last month, helped by the launch of new projects and an easing of requirements for home loan applicants.

Approvals for residential mortgages dropped 5.9% to 110,186 cases for the whole of last year, but the total value of new mortgages rose 5.8% to HK$226.2bn.

According to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, approvals for housing loans increased 22.8 % to HK$10.4bn last month from HK$8.48bn in November.

The number of new applications grew 14.8%, the banking regulator said.

The authority believes that the rise was mainly attributable to the increase in approvals for primary-market transactions.

South China Morning Post