Mortgage loans approved in April fell 5.6% compared with the previous month to $37.3 billion, the Monetary Authority announced today.

Mortgage loans financing primary market transactions dropped 15% to $6.5 billion while those financing secondary market transactions dropped 5.7% to $20.8 billion.

Those for refinancing went up 1.9% to 10 billion.

Mortgage loans drawn down during the month decreased 11.3% to $26.4 billion.

The number of mortgage applications in April increased 8.6% month-on-month to 14,898.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans rose 0.6% month-on-month to $1.2363 trillion.