Mehrdad Yousefi, head of intermediary mortgages at Alliance & Leicester, said: "A change in the base rate this month was unlikely, so soon after the Pre-Budget Report and the publication of the Bank of England's Inflation Report which anticipates that inflation will remain at or below 2.5 per cent, assuming that interest rates stay at current levels for the next two years.
"The housing market continues to be resilient especially in the last few months with mortgage applications in September and October being higher than market forecasts.
"Indicative of this strength is our recent announcement that in the first nine months of this year, our gross lending was £7.1bn with a market share of 3.5 per cent and our net lending for the same period was £2.8bn with a market share of 4.1 per cent.
"Looking forward to next year, the market consensus is that any potential weakness in retail sales in the run up to Christmas and during the January sales will factor into future decisions on interest rates."
