New mortgage loans drawn down in August rose 13.9% to $16.1 billion, the Monetary Authority says.

A monthly survey of 23 authorised institutions found that approved new loans grew 10.9% to $19.3 billion and the number of new applications grew 19.4%. The rise was due to increases of $300 million (+8.6%) and $1.7 billion (+15.3%) in approvals for primary and secondary market transactions, which more than offset the $100 million (-2%) fall in approvals for refinancing loans.

The proportion of new loans approved at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate rose to 93% from 90.9% in July, while the proportion of new approvals priced with reference to rates other than the best lending rate or fixed rates fell to 3.3% from 5.2% over the same period.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans grew 0.7% to $542.3 billion.