Mortgage lending at seven month high

According to the Bank of England net mortgage lending , which excludes redemptions and repayments, increased by £1 billion in August from the previous month to £1.227 trillion.

The figures also revealed that the number of mortgage approvals for those buying new homes remained steady at 52,317 in August, only slightly down from 52,404 the previous month.

Numbers remortgaging also fell to 29,000 in August, down from almost 34,000 in July.

Simon Rubinsohn, RICS chief economist said: “Although net lending is still way down on pre credit crunch levels, it is re-assuring that the negative reading recorded in July proved to be a one-off.”