New mortgage loans drawn down in September fell 4.6% to $11.6 billion, while new loans approved rose 7.8% to $14.5 billion, the Monetary Authority says.

The rise in new mortgage loan approvals was mainly due to increases of $900 million in approvals for primary market transactions and of $200 million in approvals for refinancing loans.

The approval for secondary market transactions remained little changed at $9.9 billion. The number of new applications grew 18.5%. 

The proportion of new loans approved at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate increased to 83.1% from 82.8% in August. The outstanding value of mortgage loans rose 0.2% to $596.7 billion.