THE Chief Secretary was not given special privileges when she got a 100 per cent mortgage, because she put up two flats as security, a source said yesterday.
To dispel doubts raised by the press on Anson Chan's property deal in 1993, the source revealed that she actually secured the $7.8 million loan to purchase a flat in Villa Monte Rosa, Mid-Levels, by a mortgage of two properties - another flat she owned through her company, and the one she was buying - which was already owned by another of her companies.
Mrs Chan got the loan from the Hang Seng Bank because of the creditworthiness of herself and her husband, a senior executive in an oil company.
'The Chief Secretary does not get any special treatment at all,' said the source. 'The loan was provided solely on the creditworthiness of both Mr and Mrs Chan.
'What the couple had done is no more and no less than others in a similar financial position.' The flat was bought for $7.8 million, while the market rate for similar flats was said to be about $9.8 million. But the source said that the flat was bought at a time when the local property market was rocketing. Prices were changing almost daily. 'Mrs Chan had no idea what the price was for comparable properties,' said the source.
A press report suggested on Thursday that Mrs Chan had bought a flat at $7.8 million with a 100 per cent mortgage from a bank in 1993.