Chun Nam Holdings Limited lends against property from Po Yick Street in Tai Po. We are not a bank; we take no deposits and issue no cards.
In the New Territories, "I own a house" covers a considerable range of legal positions. Some are ordinary. Some carry restrictions on charging or selling that a borrower discovers only when a loan is being arranged — which is a difficult moment to find out what you actually hold.
This page is written for the owner, not for the lender. Take it to a solicitor.
A charge over property means the property answers for the debt. If the arrangement fails, the security is what is realised. Everything else on this page follows from that one sentence, and any lender who presents a charge as paperwork is not describing it accurately.
Sole ownership, joint tenancy, tenancy in common, a share in an undivided lot, a beneficial interest held through family arrangement — these are materially different things. A solicitor can establish which applies from the Land Registry and the title deeds, usually quickly.
Land in Hong Kong is held under government lease, and leases carry conditions. Some categories of New Territories property are subject to restrictions on assignment or charging, or require consent before certain dealings. These are not obscure technicalities; they determine whether a charge can validly be granted at all.
Structures built without approval can attract enforcement action and can reduce or complicate what a property is worth to a lender. If part of the building was added later, establish its status before treating the whole as security.
A spouse, a co-owner, a family member contributing to purchase, an existing mortgagee, or an occupier with a claim. Each of them may need to be identified, and in some cases to take separate independent advice, before a charge is granted.
Not with ours, and not with an introducer. Where property is pledged, the borrower should have separate independent legal representation — it is the ordinary practice and it exists for the borrower's protection rather than the lender's convenience.
The answer comes from the title deeds and the government lease, not from an estate agent's recollection or from what the family has always assumed.
A second charge sits behind the first. Understand what would remain for you, and for the second lender, if the property were realised.
Co-owners and spouses should take advice separately. Shared advice is not independent advice, and a charge signed without it can be contested later.
Ask for it in plain terms before signing: demand, default interest, and the mechanism by which security is enforced. That clause describes the outcome you are insuring against.
If any lender discourages you from taking your own legal advice, that is the end of the discussion. The cost of a solicitor is small against the value of a house, and free legal advice schemes exist in Hong Kong for those who qualify.
| Property-secured loans | Secured on Hong Kong property with clean, established title, following independent legal advice to the borrower and, where relevant, to co-owners. |
| Second charges | Considered where the ranking and the equity position are clearly understood by everyone involved, and where the arithmetic still works if values fall. |
| Short-term facilities | For a defined gap with an identified source of repayment. Where the exit is uncertain, secured short-term lending enlarges the problem rather than solving it. |
| Business lending | Working capital for owner-run businesses in Tai Po and the northern districts, sized against a quiet month rather than a strong one. |
| Declined | Property whose title or lease restrictions have not been established; borrowers who have not taken independent advice; applications where the money is going to another lender's instalment; anything arriving through a person expecting a fee from the borrower. |
No figure is published here, because any single number would be wrong for nearly everyone reading it. You will receive the effective annual rate calculated on the basis the Ordinance specifies, the total amount repayable, and the complete schedule, in writing, before signature. The statutory ceiling is an effective rate of 60% per annum — a ceiling, not a target, and lawful is not the same as affordable.
Because a charge over a home is the most consequential document most people ever sign, and because a borrower who understood it is far less likely to end up in a dispute. It also protects the arrangement itself — a security granted by somebody who was properly advised is considerably harder to challenge afterwards.
Sometimes it is, and long possession is not the same as documented title. Ownership held informally within a family, or through arrangements never recorded, can take time to establish. This is a solicitor's work and it is far better done before a loan is contemplated than during one.
Not unilaterally, in the ordinary case. Co-owners have rights, and their position must be established and, where required, separately advised. A charge purporting to bind somebody who was not properly party to it is a dispute waiting to be litigated.
Treat it as false until you have telephoned the number on this page yourself. We appoint no agents to approach borrowers, and no fee is payable to anybody before a loan is advanced. If money has already been sent, report it to the police and do not send more attempting to recover it.
For a straightforward mortgage on property with clean title, yes, and it will generally be cheaper. Lenders such as ourselves earn a place where the timing is short or the situation does not fit a bank's process — not as a substitute for a facility a bank would have written.
Telephone before the payment is missed rather than after. Options while an account is current are considerably wider, and where property is charged the consequences of drift are severe. Take independent legal advice early; free legal advice schemes and legal aid exist for those who qualify.
Tell us the property, what is already secured on it, and what the funding is for. If the title has not been established, our first suggestion will be a solicitor rather than a facility.