New mortgage loans drawn down in May fell 15.3% to $17.2 billion, while new loans approved dropped 11.4% to $21.4 billion, the Monetary Authority says.

The fall was due to a drop across all types of property transaction. Approvals for primary-market and secondary-market transactions fell 43.5% and 0.6%, while refinancing of loans also dropped 16.5%.

The number of new applications grew 4.8%. The proportion of new loans approved at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate slightly rose to 84.8% from 84.7% in April.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans rose 0.8% to $585.6 billion. 

The mortgage delinquency ratio and rescheduled loan ratio dropped to 0.07% and 0.15%, driving the combined ratio to a record low of 0.22%.