Approved mortgage loans jumped 16.1% to $21.6b

As primary market transactions climbed a whopping 69.5%.

According to the the Monetary Authority, mortgage loans approved in March rose 16.1% month-on-month to $21.6 billion.

In its residential mortgage survey results for March, the authority said mortgage loans drawn down in March rose 52% month-on-month, to $18.6 billion.

Among the mortgage loans approved, those for primary market transactions increased 69.5% to $5.1 billion, and secondary market transactions increased 0.6% to $13 billion. Mortgage loans for refinancing increased 30.5% to $3.5 billion.

About 86.4% of the new mortgage loans approved were priced with reference to best lending rates, with the largest portion in the price range of 2% and 2.25%. The portion of new mortgage loans priced with reference to HIBOR fell from 11.4% in February to 10.7% in March.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans rose 0.8% month-on-month to $884.1 billion. The mortgage delinquency ratio remained unchanged at 0.01%. The rescheduled loan ratio decreased from 0.01% in February to nearly zero in March.