New mortgage loans drawn down in June fell 3.1%, to $16.7 billion, while new loans approved grew 3.1%, to $22.1 billion, the Monetary Authority says.

The growth was due to an increase of $1.1 billion in approvals for secondary market transactions, which compensated for the drop of $400 million in approvals for primary market transactions. Loans refinancing grew 1.1%.

The number of new applications dropped 11.6%. The proportion of new loans approved at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate rose to 86.3% from 84.8% in May.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans rose 0.7%, to $589.7 billion. 

The mortgage delinquency ratio and rescheduled loan ratio dipped to 0.06% and 0.15%, driving the combined ratio to a record low of 0.21%.