Report
Q1 2025 Industry Insights
Hong Kong Consumer Credit Market Saw Areas of Growth Amid Diverging Trends in Q1 2025
Q1 2025 Report highlights include:
- Credit card originations slowed down due to 13-month retail sales slump
- Demand for personal loans increased in Q4 2024, lenders met demand with caution as loan values remained lower than prior year
- Mortgage growth accelerated amid supportive policies and attractive property prices following continued market correction
Soft retail spending in Hong Kong drained growth momentum from the territory’s credit card market, with originations down 4.5% YoY in the last quarter of 20241. The slowed retail spending, in its thirteenth month2 of negative growth, will likely impact originations activity in the first quarter of 2025.
The TransUnion Industry Insights Report for Q1 20253 also shows that Hong Kong’s personal loan market rebounded in volume during Q4 2024, with originations up 6.6% YoY, although the average opening loan amount for new loans in Q4 2024 was 2.9% less YoY.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) reported that mortgage originations rebounded sharply in Q1 20254. This increase was likely due to supportive polices following HKMA’s relaxing of loan-to-value rules, allowing up to 70% loans for most residential properties, as well as more buyer-friendly pricing and stable interest rates5.
Summary of growth in unsecured lending products Q1 2025
*Originations reported one quarter in arrears due to data lag and reflects Q4 2024 volumes. Growth reflects movement between Q4 2023 and Q4 2024 for year-over-year comparison.
“This resurgence in the Hong Kong property market creates an atmosphere that is particularly favourable for first-time home buyers, for whom affordability has long been a challenge. As more people buy homes, increased property ownership is likely to drive growth in other credit products, as new homeowners will likely need to expand their credit wallets with personal loans to purchase bigger ticket items such as appliances or larger décor elements, or they may turn to a revolving loan or credit cards to fund renovations. These developments may serve as a catalyst for renewed momentum across the broader credit landscape.”
- Weihan Sun, principal of research and consulting for Asia Pacific at TransUnion
About the Hong Kong Industry Insights Report
TransUnion’s quarterly Hong Kong Industry Insights Report provides in-depth, statistical information drawn from its regional consumer credit database, aggregated across virtually every active credit file on record. Each file contains hundreds of credit variables that illustrate consumer credit usage and performance. Entities across industries can subscribe to and leverage the Industry Insights Report to analyse market dynamics throughout an entire business cycle, helping them understand consumer behaviour over time. The report looks at major consumer lending categories: credit cards, loan on cards, personal loans, revolving lines, mortgages, and auto loans, focusing primarily on three dimensions across these categories: originations (new accounts opened), balances (outstanding total and average lending balances) and delinquencies (accounts in payment arears).
¹ Originations and enquiries are viewed one quarter in arrears to account for reporting lag
² C&SD: Table 620-67001: Total Retail Sales
³ TransUnion's first Industry Insights Report for Hong Kong in 2025 is based on data from the Credit Reference Platform under Credit Data Smart (CDS), following the full migration by the end of November 2024. Future reports will continue to leverage data from this source
⁴ According to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority releases on mortgage data from January to March 2025
⁵ Hong Kong Monetary Authority: Countercyclical Macroprudential Measures for Property Mortgage Loans
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