Mortgage loans slipped 4.6% to $15.5b

Primary-market transactions sharply declined to $3.3b.

In a report, the Monetary Authority announced that mortgage loans approved in May dropped 4.6% month-on-month to $15.5 billion.

Among the mortgage loans approved, those for primary-market transactions fell 28.3% to $3.3 billion and those for secondary-market transactions rose 14.2% to $9.4 billion. Mortgage loans for refinancing dropped 18.1% to $2.8 billion.

Mortgage loans drawn down decreased 3.4% to $14.5 billion. The number of mortgage applications grew 17.8% to 8,681.

New mortgage loans priced with reference to best lending rates decreased to 78.9%, with the largest portion in the price range of 2% and 2.5%. The portion priced with reference to HIBOR increased to 16.2%.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans rose by 0.5% to $892.7 billion.

The mortgage delinquency ratio increased to 0.02%. The rescheduled loan ratio remained unchanged at nearly 0%.