The Monetary Authority announced that residential mortgage loans approved in July decreased 18.2% compared with June to $28.1 billion.

Mortgage loans financing primary market transactions dropped 23.6% to $5.9 billion, while those financing secondary market transactions went down 24% to $13.4 billion.

Loans for refinancing also fell 2.6% to $8.9 billion.

Mortgage loans drawn down during the month dipped 7.7% to $26.3 billion.

The number of mortgage applications in July stood at 8,086, a month-on-month decrease of 2%.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans rose 0.6% to $1.8515 trillion at the end of July.