Residential mortgage loans approved in May increased 20.3% compared with April to $42.6 billion, the Monetary Authority announced today.

Mortgage loans financing primary market transactions expanded 39.9% to $13.5 billion, while those financing secondary market transactions rose 5.2% to $22.4 billion.

Loans for refinancing also boosted 50.2% to $6.7 billion.

Mortgage loans drawn down during the month went up 40.2% to $23.9 billion.

The number of mortgage applications in May was 9,530, a month-on-month increase of 13.9%.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans rose 0.3% to $1.8289 trillion at the end of May.