New mortgage loans drawn down during October stood at $9.7 billion, down 0.5% on a month earlier, while new loans approved rose 2% to $11.8 billion, says the Monetary Authority.

The increase was due to a rise of $200 billion, or 2.7%, in approvals for secondary market transactions, and of $400 billion, or 17.7%, in approvals for refinancing. These increases more than offset the $300 billion or 10.5% decrease in approvals for primary market transactions. The number of new applications went up 7.4%.

The proportion of new loans approved at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate grew to 58.1%, from 55.9% in September. The proportion of new approvals priced with reference to rates other than the best lending rate or fixed rates went down to 34.8%, from 35.9% a month earlier. 

The outstanding value of mortgage loans was unchanged at $526 billion.

The mortgage delinquency ratio edged up to 0.21% after remaining at 0.2% for five consecutive months. With the rescheduled loan ratio edging down to 0.28%, the combined ratio was steady at 0.49%.