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HSBC sees mortgage lending grow by 25% in Q2 |
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August 16, 2009
Banks and lenders in the UAE are witnessing healthy growth in residential real estate mortgages, it was reported on Sunday.
HSBC
in the UAE has seen the value of mortgage lending grow by a quarter in
the second quarter of the year compared to the first, Venkatesh
Srikantan, regional head of Assets and Liabilities, HSBC Middle East
said, without elaborating on the value of the lending.
"The
growth in Q2 over Q1 is more than 25 per cent. As price expectations
between sellers and buyers are converging, there are more transactions
happening both for property sales and mortgages," he added in comments
published by Emirates Business.
"There is an increase in demand especially from end-users who missed
the earlier property booms and are now happy to purchase property at
these price levels," said Srikantan.
And Abu Dhabi Finance
(ADF)'s CEO Philip Ward told the paper: "Since we launched last
November, the number of leads and the number of mortgage applications
we have received have far surpassed our initial expectations."
"We're
definitely writing more mortgage cheques now than in the first quarter
of the year," added another senior Dubai-based banker, who declined to
be identified, the paper reported.
Home prices in the UAE,
particularly off-plan properties, have seen considerable declines since
their peak in the third quarter of 2008.
But the number of transactions are reportedly slowly going up compared to activity in the first two quarters of 2009.
Source: Arabian Business
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