Chart of the Day: Real estate loans undermine Singapore's lending market

Activity has decreased sharply.

Singapore's loan market was hard-hit by the sharp decrease in housing loans, according to a report by BMI Research.

"Activity in Singapore's loan market has fallen off a cliff this year and with the housing market serving as a drag upon the industry, we do not expect conditions for local borrowers to improve anytime soon," said BMI.

Citing data provided by Dealogic, total SGD-denominated loan issuance has reached a level of just USD6.3bn via 19 deals so far in 2015.

This represents a drop-off in activity of 20.8% from the 24 loan facilities worth a combined USD14.6bn inked by the same stage in 2014.

"In such an unfavourable climate for borrowing, it seems that the lion's share of companies still securing facilities are the ones with their backs against the wall and in need of credit. Indeed, refinancing loans account for the majority (65%) of total SGD-denominated syndicated loan borrowing in 2015 to-date with USD4.1bn in fresh facilities secured," the report noted.