Hong Kong / Macau - Relief from Banks

[traineeinvestor]

Original Post Deleted

Yes and no.

A combination of very high deposit requirements and almost all mortgages in HK being P+I means that most property owners have very high levels of equity in their properties as far as the banks are concerned.

The position for finance companies providing second mortgages is more precarious as they rank after the banks. While some of the finance companies have parent companies with very deep pockets (e.g. most of the ones owned by large developers), some are dependent on third party funding themselves and these ones are more vulnerable to being affected by a negative equity situation.

It's also worth remembering that in the 1997-2003 downturn when residential property lost 60-70% of its value there were surprisingly few mortgagee sales (some certainly but not high numbers) and no HK bank collapsed. (One bank reputedly came close and was very publicly supported). As a follow on, bank capital requirements are much higher now than then so the banks are in a stronger position to weather a storm than 20 years ago.

Offering extensions is just good business sense in these times.

[greenmark]

I can see a few people using it as a means of generating some cash to invest in even though it's intended to help those experiencing temporary cash flow problems.

@bdw I think this was directed at you.