The second month of the year incidentally also saw loan applications at the highest level in six months, which the research outfit believes could be due to recovery in buying interest following a pause in the central bank’s overnight policy rate hike in January, as loan applications soared 40% year-on-year with buying interest recovering from the subdued demand in the past few months.
However, MIDF Research said the encouraging growth was partially negated by a lower percentage of total approved loans over total applied loans of 37.5% in February, compared to January’s 42%. “We think that the higher approved loans may signal that the negative impact of the OPR hikes in 2022 is over and the sales outlook for developers should improve going forward.”