DBS Group Holdings' mortgage business is still growing despite the prolonged property slowdown here, with the bank building its market share to a five-year high.

Housing loans were up 7.5 per cent year-on-year and 1.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter to $54.6 billion in the quarter ended June 30, the latest data by DBS showed. "The overall mortgage market in Singapore has been slow, but our share is the highest in five years at 25.3 per cent," DBS chief executive Piyush Gupta said yesterday.

He added that mortgage loans contributed about one-third of DBS' $2.8-billion total loans in the quarter.

"Our mortgage book is now set to deliver $3.5 billion growth for this year, consistent with what we had last year."

Aside from its competitive pricing, DBS also benefited from its focus on loans to public housing buyers, and the bank has been able to win loans share from the Housing Board, Mr Gupta said.

Meanwhile, asset quality at the bank remained stable, with the non-performing loan ratio unchanged at 0.9 per cent. But non-performing assets (NPAs) were $2.57 billion, up 5.8 per cent year-on-year.

The bulk of the new NPAs was from the small and medium-sized enterprise segment in Singapore and Hong Kong, but Mr Gupta stressed there was no systemic issue.