Residential mortgage loans approved in March increased 40% compared with February to $33.1 billion, the Monetary Authority announced today.

Mortgage loans financing primary market transactions rose 70% to $7.7 billion, while those financing secondary market transactions increased 32% to $19 billion.

Those for refinancing increased 35.4% to $6.5 billion.

Mortgage loans drawn down during the month rose 10.7% to $20.7 billion.

The number of mortgage applications in March increased month-on-month by 52.6% to 13,030.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased 0.5% to $1.4598 trillion at the end of March.