New data from the British Bankers Association (BBA) found that during July the number of approvals for house purchases improved slightly to 22,448 from June’s record low of 22,369.

The figures for approvals for new mortgages are often seen as a good indicator of demand in the housing market. Although approvals stabilised during July they have now fallen at an annual rate of -65% from July 2007 when 64,184 new home loans were approved.

The BBA also collated the amount of remortgaging that was approved in July. It recorded a drop of -7.5% to 54,232 from June’s figure of 58,624. Annually, the remortgage market declined by -21.2% from 68,780 in July 2007. When compared to approvals for new purchases and other loans secured against a property, remortgaging accounted for over 50% of the total approvals.

Chris Cummings, director general of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI), told PIN: “The BBA figures may point to a stabilisation of mortgage approvals but it certainly doesn’t look like a recovery as the data showed that mortgage approvals remain close to record lows. I fear we will have to wait until 2010 for any signs of recovery, unless the public policy pressure moves away from the laissez-faire approach now being pursued.”