New mortgage loans drawn down in April fell 1.2% to $20.4 billion, while new loans approved dropped 2.1% to $24.2 billion, the Monetary Authority says.

The fall was due to a 14% decrease in approvals for secondary market transactions.

Approvals for primary-market transactions and refinancing loans rose 45% and 14.9%. The number of new applications fell 4.2%. 

The proportion of new loans approved at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate dropped to 84.7% from 90% in March.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans rose 1.1%, to $581.2 billion. 

The mortgage delinquency ratio and rescheduled loan ratio dropped to 0.08% and 0.16%, driving the combined ratio to a record low of 0.24%.