Residential mortgage loans approved in March increased 39% compared with February to $53 billion, the Monetary Authority announced today.

Mortgage loans financing primary market transactions rose 86.5% to $9.7 billion, while those financing secondary market transactions increased 31.5% to $36.2 billion.

Those for refinancing rose 31.7% to $7.1 billion.

Mortgage loans drawn down during the month increased 56.3% to $30.2 billion.

The number of mortgage applications in March increased month-on-month by 44.1% to 17,946.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased month-on-month by 0.6% to $1.6053 trillion at the end of March.