Gross lending reached a new May record of £30.6bn, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

The figure is up by 12% on April’s lending total of £27.4bn, and is 5% higher than the same month in 2006 (£29bn). However, the rate of year-on-year growth is not as high as we have seen in the first four months of the year – typically around 12-15%.

Michael Coogan, CML director general, said: “While today’s lending figure is a new record for the month of May it does indicate that the market is slowing down following the rapid and sustained growth we saw last year.
“Going forward we expect lending to ease as we progress through the year, but the market will remain in good shape. Although further interest rate rises will continue to dampen demand, we are still on course to meet our prediction of a record £360bn of lending during 2007.”