Residential mortgage loans approved in February decreased 5% compared with January to $23.7 billion, the Monetary Authority announced today.

Mortgage loans financing primary market transactions fell 2.1% to $4.5 billion, while those financing secondary market transactions decreased 1.9% to $14.4 billion.

Those for refinancing dropped 15.5% to $4.8 billion.

Mortgage loans drawn down during the month fell 20.2% to $18.7 billion.

The number of mortgage applications in February decreased month-on-month by 6.4% to 8,536.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased 0.4% to $1.4524 trillion at the end of February.