The Monetary Authority's monthly survey of residential mortgage lending found 25.4% growth in new loans drawn down in February, to $7.5 billion, the first rise in nine months. New loans approved by the institutions also rose 2.4%, to $7.7 billion.

Within this total, approvals for secondary-market transactions rose by $137 million (+2.5%) and refinancings by $151 million (+19.9%), which more than offset the $110 million (-8.7%) fall in approvals for primary-market transactions. The number of new applications also rose 13.7%.

The proportion of new approvals priced at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate rose markedly, to 30.2% from 8.1% in January. This continued to be the most commonly used interest-rate band for new approvals in February.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans fell 0.1%, to $531.1 billion, while the mortgage delinquency ratio edged up to 0.2% from 0.19% a month earlier. With the rescheduled loan ratio remaining unchanged at 0.34%, the combined ratio rose to 0.54% from 0.53% in January.