Residential mortgage loans approved in December last year decreased 5.4% compared with November to $26.6 billion, the Monetary Authority announced today.

Mortgage loans financing primary market transactions fell 17.7% to $5.3 billion, while those financing secondary market transactions increased 5.2% to $15.8 billion.

Those for refinancing dropped 17.5% to $5.5 billion.

Mortgage loans drawn down during the month fell 3.1% to $21.4 billion.

The number of mortgage applications in December decreased month-on-month by 16.7% to 7,836.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased 0.5% to $1.4365 trillion at the end of December.