Although secured lending is on the decline due to a fall in remortgaging activity, loan approvals for house purchase in February totalled 37,937 (£4.5 bn) which was up on the 31,791 (£3.8 bn) in January and well ahead of the six month average of 31,495 (£3.8 bn).
The twelve-month growth rate continued to fall, by 0.5 percentage points to 2.6%, and the three-month annualised growth rate was unchanged at 1.3%.
Consumer credit declined by a net £0.2 billion, weaker than the £0.2 billion net increase in January and below the previous six-month average. Net credit card lending increased by £0.2 billion and net other loans and advances fell by £0.4 billion. The annual growth rate of consumer credit continued to fall, to 3.4%; the three-month annualised growth rate fell by 1.5 percentage points, to 0.1%.
CML economist Paul Samter said: "February's approvals for house purchase - 38,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis - were nearly a fifth higher than in January and marked the first material improvement in approvals since mid-2008.
"This is welcome news, but we will need to see a few more months' figures before we can say with any confidence that market conditions are showing a fundamental improvement. Transactions remain historically very weak, and this makes it harder than usual to adjust the figures for the normal upturn that happens in the spring."
