Chart of the Day: Take a look at the massive drop in housing loan growth in November

Expect another slow year ahead.

Loan growth is the only soft spot for Singapore’s three largest banks. According to Maybank Kim Eng, housing loan growth crashed to 6.2% year-on-year in November, the slowest pace in seven years.

This reflected a weak property market and a higher base. Housing loans accounted for 29% of total industry domestic banking unit loans.

“We expect slower housing loan growth in 2015 with drawdowns for newly completed homes to feed loan growth.We expect loan growth to average 9% in 2015 for our banks, relatively unchanged from our 9.3% projection for 2014. Given the pace of the slowdown locally, there is a risk that our 12% business loan growth projection for 2015 may not be met,” stated Maybank Kim Eng.