Centaline Mortgage: Hong Kong banks' subsidized housing mortgage registrations rose 54% month-on-month in August, hitting a 2-month high.

Centaline Mortgage Managing Director Wong Mei-fung said that according to data from Centaline Mortgage Research Department and the Land Registry, Hong Kong banks recorded a total of 3,093 subsidized housing mortgage registrations in August 2026, up sharply by 54.3% month-on-month from 2,005 in July, hitting a two-month high. The increase was mainly driven by several medium-to-large Home Ownership Scheme projects successively entering the mortgage drawdown period, leading to a notable rise in mortgage registrations during the month. Within the month, Kai Ying Court, Yu Hing Court and Kam Pak Court recorded a combined 2,412 registrations for completed properties, a sharp increase from the 1,333 registrations for Kam Pak Court and Yu Hing Court last month. On a cumulative basis for the first eight months, subsidized housing mortgage registrations totaled 16,961, up sharply by 60.4% year-on-year from 10,577 in the same period of 2025. In terms of market share in subsidized housing mortgages, BOC HONG KONG ranked first for the 37th consecutive month in August with a market share of 53.1%. In the secondary HOS market, Wong Mei-fung continued that according to data from Centaline Mortgage Research Department and the Housing Authority (as of September 16, 2026), the HOS secondary market recorded 264 transactions in August 2026, up slightly by 0.4% from 263 in July. However, compared with the monthly average of 375 transactions in the first half of the year, transaction volume has fallen for two consecutive months to below the 300 level, reflecting a slowdown in activity in the secondary HOS market. She explained that as the market had earlier absorbed some bargain HOS units, gradually rising property prices also led to a standoff between buyers and sellers, slowing the pace of entry by White Form Secondary Market Scheme buyers recently. In addition, the ballot results for the new phase of HOS 2025 and White Form Secondary Market Scheme 2025 were announced in July, and it is believed that some subsidized housing buyers have turned to a wait-and-see approach, focusing on the new round of HOS, which affected transactions in the secondary HOS market. Wong Mei-fung said that according to data from Centaline Mortgage Research Department and the Land Registry, Hong Kong banks recorded a total of 3,093 subsidized housing mortgage registrations in August 2026, up 54.3% month-on-month from 2,005 in July. The market share of the top four banks rose by 1.3 percentage points to 97.4% in August. In terms of rankings, BOC HONG KONG recorded 1,643 registrations, with market share up 5.5 percentage points month-on-month to 53.1%, ranking first for 37 consecutive months. HSBC recorded 558 registrations, with market share down 1.2 percentage points to 18%, rising one place to second. HANG SENG BANK recorded 542 registrations during the period, with market share down 2.8 percentage points to 17.5%, falling one place to third. The fourth to sixth places were BANKCOMM (Hong Kong), Standard Chartered Bank and BANK OF E ASIA respectively. ICBC (Asia), China CITIC Bank International and Dah Sing Bank tied for seventh. Citibank ranked tenth. Data from Centaline Mortgage Research Department shows that in the first eight months of 2026, a total of 16,961 subsidized housing mortgage registrations were handled, up sharply by 60.4% year-on-year from 10,577 in the same period last year. Benefiting from the completion of several new HOS and Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme projects in the first half of the year and their entry into the mortgage drawdown period, cumulative subsidized housing mortgage registrations increased significantly this year. Among them, the top three rankings remained unchanged. The first to third places were BOC HONG KONG (8,877 registrations, market share 52.3%), HANG SENG BANK (3,386 registrations, market share 20%) and HSBC (3,190 registrations, market share 18.8%). The most notable increase was BANKCOMM (Hong Kong), whose number of registrations surged more than 22 times year-on-year, with its ranking jumping four places from eighth last year to fourth.