There were 14.7 billion HK dollars (U.S. 1.88 billion HK dollars) in new mortgage loans drawn down in August in Hong Kong, a fall of 27.0 percent on July, the city's Monetary Authority announced Monday.

The Monetary Authority said new loans approved fell 10.3 percent to 15.8 billion HK dollars. Among these, approvals for primary and secondary market transactions dropped by 9.2 percent to 2.5 billion HK dollars and 11.9 percent to 10.5 billion HK dollars, while those for refinancing went down 5.1 percent to 2.8 billion HK dollars.

The number of new applications rose 5.0 percent to 9,682.

About 42.1 percent of the new mortgage loans approved in August were priced with reference to best lending rates, with the largest portion in the price range of less than 2.25 percent.

The proportion of new mortgage loans priced with reference to Hang Seng Interbank Offered Rates dropped to 55.8 percent in August.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans rose 0.4 percent to 797. 1 billion HK dollars. (1 U.S. dollar = 7.801 HK dollars)