British mortgage lending rose in October by its largest amount in three years and approvals for new loans also stood at their highest since late 2003, official figures showed today.
The Bank of England said lending secured on dwellings rose by £9.808 billion last month - the biggest jump since September 2003 - compared with an £8.976 billion rise the month before.
Analysts had predicted a £9 billion pounds increase. Approvals - loans agreed but not yet made - rose to 128,000 from 127,000.
That was the highest since December 2003. The figures suggest that August's interest rate hike and expectations of a rise in November did little to curb demand for housing last month, unless it pointed to people fixing deals before borrowing costs climbed any higher.
Unsecured lending rose by £1.106 billion in October, slightly more than the £959 million increase in the month before. But that still took the annual rate of increase to 6.2 per cent, the lowest since comparable records began in 1994