Mortgage loans up in June

Banks and building societies handed out £12.7bn in mortgage loans during July as the homes lending market picked up by 8 per cent after a Jubilee-affected June, according to statistics from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

The amount was also 2 per cent higher than the £12.5bn loaned a year earlier.

But the CML said that a clear picture of the lending market was unlikely to emerge until September, when the impact of other one-off factors such as the London Olympic Games, fades.

Peter Rollings, the chief executive of estate agent Marsh & Parsons, said: "An 8 per cent increase barely scratches the surface of the long-term, pent-up demand from would-be buyers."