The value of new mortgage commitments in the third quarter of this year reached £78.9bn, which is the highest level seen since the third quarter of 2007, says the Bank of England.

It is a 6.8 per cent increase on Q3 20019’s figure, which reached £73.4bn, the bank adds.

The data also shows that the outstanding value of all residential mortgage loans at the end of Q3 2020 totalled £1,527.3bn, which is 2.9 per cent higher than in Q3 2019, when it came in at £1,484.6bn.

The value of gross mortgage advances in the third quarter of this year, meanwhile, was £62.5bn which, compared to £73.3bn in last year’s Q3, makes for a 14.7 per cent drop.

Digging into the data a little further shows that the share of advances with LTV ratios over 90 per cent fell slightly to 3.5 per cent.

And it reveals that the share of advances with an interest rate less then 2 per cent above the bank rate fell 10 percentage points across the same time frame, to 74.2 per cent.

In Q3 2020, the value of outstanding balances with arrears fell by 1.2 per cent to come to £13.8bn, accounting for 0.90 per cent of outstanding mortgage balances, the BoE adds.

North London estate agent and former Rics residential chairman Jeremy Leaf says: “The numbers confirm what we have seen in our offices – that buyers and sellers are determined to ensure sales agreed get over the line before the stamp duty holiday ends, despite there being fewer higher LTV products which tends to make it harder for first-time buyers.

“That trend has continued and shows little sign of reducing, although new business is now thin on the ground.”