Slight slowing in mortgage lending

The number of new mortgages is at a one year low with new mortgage lending having dipped slightly during March, thus leading the Bank of England (BoE) to state this might indicate a slowing housing market.

New home loans totalled £9.9bn in March, which was down on the previous month's adjusted £10bn figure.

A total of 111,000 new mortgages were approved in March, (the lowest level for a year) a drop from 117,000 in February.

In addition, recent housing market surveys have shown prices rises slowing everywhere but London and Northern Ireland.

The BOE lending figures may be the first signs that recent interest rate rises are having an impact, experts say. "Possibly the first hint of a softening of housing activity on the back of recent monetary tightening and the expectation of more to come," Peter Newland, UK economist at Lehman Brothers, said.

Next week, the BoE's Monetary Policy Committee is meeting to decide on the next move in UK interest rates.

Most analysts have said that the Committee is likely to raise interest rates again, thus taking the heat out of the UK housing market.