New loans drawn down in March rose 25.5% to $8.9 billion, according to the Monetary Authority's monthly survey of residential mortgage lending.

New approvals grew 46% to $16.7 billion. Approvals for primary-market transactions rose $2.1 billion or 106.8%, secondary-market transactions grew by $2.8 billion or 33.1%, and approvals for refinancing loans rose by $400 million or 39.4%. The number of new applications rose to 13,261 compared with 8,445 in February.

Nearly 50% of the new mortgage loans approved in March were priced within the range of 2% to 2.5% below the best lending rate. The proportion of new mortgage loans priced with reference to rates other than the best lending rate fell to 29.5% in March from 32% in February.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans remained little changed at $587 billion. 

The mortgage delinquency ratio fell to 0.05% while the rescheduled loan ratio remained unchanged at 0.13%. The combined ratio declined to 0.18% from 0.19% in February.