Net mortgage borrowing came to £17.9bn in June, which compares to the previous high of £11.5bn, recorded in March this year.

The Bank of England’s latest money and credit report also shows that approvals for house purchases fell to 81,300 in June, however, some way off the 86,900 seen in May.

This is the lowest number of approvals for house purchases witnessed since July 2020, the BoE says, “but remains above pre-February 2020 levels.”

“Evidence suggests there has been a shortening of time between a mortgage being approved and the lending itself,” the bank comments.

In total, the value of approved house purchases equalled £17.9bn, down from £19.6bn in May.

And the number or remortgage approvals came to 35,400 in June compared to 34,800 in May. The value of these approvals totalled £6.9bn in June, up from £6.8bn in May.

Gross mortgage lending, the BoE says, moved up to £43.8bn while gross repayments came to £27.7bn, up from £24.6bn and £18.9bn, respectively.

North London estate agent and former Rics residential chairman Jeremy Leaf comments: “As expected, these numbers are very strong, reflecting the frenzy as buyers tried to beat the stamp duty taper at the end of June.

“However, they don’t reflect what happened immediately afterwards and whether that level of activity was able to be sustained. We will be looking very closely at the next set of figures for mortgage approvals in particular as they always provide a useful direction of travel for the market.

“Only then will we be able to see just how far activity has fallen but certainly we don’t expect a major change based on what has been happening in the past few weeks on the high street.”

Meanwhile, Phoebus Software sales and marketing director Richard Pike says: “A dip in mortgage approvals in June could be the first sign that the market is settling back to some sort of normality after the frenetic action we’ve seen recently.

“Coupled with Nationwide’s reported fall in house prices, you could be forgiven for thinking we are heading for another downturn.

“However, there is one factor that is likely to keep the market moving for both purchase and remortgaging, and that is mortgage interest rates and the current flurry of fixed-rate deals that are being announced on an almost daily basis.

“It appears that lenders are determined to keep the momentum going, and with two-year fixes as low as 0.75%, there is plenty of incentive for borrowers.