October mortgage applications up 16%

Yet new loans approved dropped 2.2% to $30.8bln while an increase of $1.8bln was registered in approvals for primary market transactions.

New mortgage loans drawn down in October dropped 26.1% to $25.1 billion and new applications rose 16% to 20,363, the Monetary Authority reported on Friday.

New loans approved dropped 2.2% to $30.8 billion. Approvals for secondary market transactions contracted by $2.4 billion while an increase of $1.8 billion was registered in approvals for primary market transactions. Approvals for refinancing transactions fell by $100 million.

About 8% of new mortgage loans approved in October were priced with reference to best lending rates. The majority of these were in the price range of 2% to less than 2.25%.

The proportion of new mortgage loans priced with reference to interbank best lending rates rose to 91.6% from 90.7% in September.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans grew by 0.6% to $723 billion. Both the mortgage delinquency ratio and the rescheduled loan ratio remained unchanged at 0.02% and 0.04% in October.