Residential mortgage loans approved in October decreased 7.4% compared with September to $49 billion, the Monetary Authority announced today.

Mortgage loans financing primary market transactions rose 37% to $12.4 billion, while those financing secondary market transactions fell 17.7% to $26.9 billion.

Those for refinancing dropped 13.1% to $9.7 billion.

Mortgage loans drawn down during the month decreased 20.8% to $31.9 billion.

The number of mortgage applications in October decreased month-on-month by 14.9% to 11,340.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased month-on-month by 0.6% to $1.7076 trillion at the end of October.