Residential mortgage loans approved in February increased 1% compared with January to $38.1 billion, the Monetary Authority announced today.

Mortgage loans financing primary market transactions rose 5% to $5.2 billion, while those financing secondary market transactions increased 1.8% to $27.5 billion.

Those for refinancing dropped 6.4% to $5.4 billion.

Mortgage loans drawn down during the month dropped 22.5% to $19.3 billion.

The number of mortgage applications in February decreased month-on-month by 5% to 12,455.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased month-on-month by 0.3% to $1.5959 trillion at the end of the month.