New mortgage loans drawn down during May rose 42.5% to $15.2 billion compared with April, the Monetary Authority announced today.

New loans approved during the month rose 28.4% to $28.1 billion, mainly driven by increases of 22.6% or $3.6 billion in approvals for secondary market transactions and of 48.1% or $2.1 billion in approvals for primary market transactions.

Refinancing loans also rose by $500 million. The number of new applications increased to 19,419 compared with 18,455 in April.

Around 53% of the new mortgage loans approved in May were priced at more than 2.5% below the best lending rate, compared with 28.6% in April. The proportion of new mortgage loans priced with reference to rates other than the best lending rate rose to 31.9% in May from 29.9% in April.