Mortgage approvals fell back slightly in January, following a boom in December, the latest index from e.surv reveals.

The surveyor found there were 66,002 residential mortgages approved last month, down by 1.8 per cent from December.

The proportion of low-deposit borrowers (with loan-to-value LTV of more than 85 per cent) increased from 25.5 per cent to 26.7 per cent between December and January. 

The share of loans to borrowers in the mid-range LTV tier of 60-85 per cent rose marginally from 47.2 per cent to 47.8 per cent.

The proportion of loans to high-deposit borrowers (with an LTV of up to 60 per cent) shrank from 27.3 per cent to 25.5 per cent.

Yorkshire was the region in which had the largest share of borrowers with small deposits as 33.6 per cent of mortgages went to customers with an LTV of more than 85 per cent, followed by the North West with 30.9 per cent of mortgages going to this ground and the Midlands with 29.8 per cent.

London had the lowest number of small-deposit borrowers at just 19.9 per cent. 

Director Richard Sexton says: “While the market fell slightly following the December bump, rumours of a Bank of England base rate cut appear to have had little appreciable impact on the mortgage market, with a strong performance among several key buyer groups in January.

“Existing homeowners benefited from low remortgage rates and were persuaded to switch to a new deal, while new buyers also swooped to seal low interest rates for their first purchase.”