HK's new mortgage loans down 9.5%

HONG KONG, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- New mortgage loans drawn down in October dropped 9.5 percent to 21.1 billion HK dollars (2.72 billion U.S. dollars), while new loans approved fell 13.1 percent to 29 billion HK dollars, official figures released Wednesday indicated.

The drop in approved new loans was mainly due to a reduction of34.5 percent in primary market transactions and a drop of 12.7 percent in secondary market transactions, according to a monthly survey by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

Approvals for refinancing loans also fell 0.6 percent, says the survey, adding that the outstanding value of mortgage loans grew 0.9 percent to 631.6 billion HK dollars. (1 U.S. dollar = 7.7415 HK dollars)