New mortgage loans drawn down in June rose 17.4% to $16.4 billion, while new loans approved fell 2.4% to $17.3 billion, the Monetary Authority says.

The drop was due to falls of $100 million in approvals for secondary market transactions and of $300 million in approvals for refinancing loans. The number of new applications also fell 16.7%.

The proportion of new loans approved at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate grew to 90.3% from 85.2% in May. The proportion of new approvals priced with reference to rates other than the best lending rate or fixed rates fell to 6.2% from 11.3% over the same period. 

The outstanding value of mortgage loans rose 0.7% to $536 billion.