Fresh figures released by the Bank of England reveal that the number of mortgages taken out for house purchases in 2005 was the highest annual rise since 1982.

Mortgage approvals for house purchases, seasonally adjusted, stood at 115,000 in November.

"Mortgage approvals are clearly above their average for the last decade of 100,000, strengthening the argument that the housing market in 2006 will see the first annual rise in activity since 2002, after three consecutive years of decline," the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said in a statement.