The bank received £10.2bn worth of mortgage applications in the third quarter, a 66% increase on the £6.2bn received in the same period last year.
RBS posted profits of £952m in the third quarter, up from £896 in the third quarter of 2014, despite having to pay out £847m in restructuring the bank and £129m in conduct costs – although conduct costs were down from £780m in the third quarter last year.
Much of the profit was made on selling US Bank Citizens for £1.15bn. Not including the bank made a loss of £134m.
Howard Davies, RBS chairman, said: "Since 2008, RBS has gone through a very difficult period and there are still quite a few obstacles to be overcome before we're back to full health.”
RBS said its net interest margin fell by four basis points from the second quarter of 2015 as result of competitive pricing.
After a 5.4% stake was sold in August the government has a 72.9% stake in the bank.
