New mortgage loans drawn down in September fell 7.2% to $15 billion, the Monetary Authority says.

A monthly survey of 23 authorised institutions found new loans approved dropped 21.9% to $15.1 billion and the number of new applications fell 25.4%. The fall was due to decreases of $800 million (-21.0%), $2.8 billion (-22.5%), and $600 million (-20.3%) in approvals for primary and secondary market transactions and refinancing loans.

The proportion of new loans approved at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate fell to 92.5% from 93% in August.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans rose by 0.6% to $545.8 billion.