Government sells $16b in loans The HKMC confirms it is in talks to acquire the mortgage portfolio of first-time homeowners in two tranches.

(From South China Morning Post)

Byline: Enoch Yiu

The government is planning to sell HK$16 billion of mortgage loans offered to first-time homebuyers to the Hong Kong Mortgage Corp (HKMC).

The chief executive of the government-owned corporation, Peter Pang Sing-tong, unveiled the purchase talks yesterday as it launched HK$3 billion worth of mortgage-backed securities, the largest sale of asset-backed debt paper in Hong Kong.

The home-starter scheme, introduced in 1998, offered middle-income families loans of up to $600,000 for the 30 per cent down payment on property purchases at a fixed interest rate of 3.5 per cent.

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