Richard Pike, Phoebus Software sales and marketing director, added: “These latest figures from UK Finance are the most encouraging for a while.

“The statistics bear out the regional figures released last week, which showed that across every region, other than in London, mortgage approvals were up. Mind you, even in London first-time buyer numbers were up in line with the rest of the country.

“As we know the lending figures for July were for mortgages approved up to three months ago. It will be very interesting to see what the figures look like in September and October when the latest HMRC figures showed that property transactions fell considerably in July.

“Is it just the usual seasonal blip, or is there an underlying trend?”