The number of new mortgage loans drawn down during February decreased 7.1%, although the value of these loans increased 2.9% to $12.8 billion, the Monetary Authority says.

New loans approved dropped 11.2% to $13.1 billion. The fall was due to the decrease in approvals for primary market transactions, which fell 17.8%, and refinancings, which fell 30.7%. These more than offset the 1.5% increase in approvals for secondary market transactions.

The number of new applications also fell, by 15.3%.

The average contractual life of newly approved loans increased from 238 months in January to 248 months, the longest since mid-1998.

Most new loans priced below best lending rate

The proportion of new loan approvals priced at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate was more or less unchanged compared with January, at 90.2%.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans grew 0.5% to $531.9 billion.

The mortgage delinquency ratio improved to 0.33% from 0.36% in January. With the rescheduled loan ratio declining slightly to 0.44% from 0.45%, the combined ratio improved to 0.77% compared with 0.81% in January.