The bank completed £10.2bn mortgage lending in the first six months of 2014, a 33% rise on the same period last year.

This resulted in a 2% increase in net mortgage lending to take its total mortgage balances to £125bn.

Barclays attributed the mortgage figures to increased confidence in the housing market and a bigger appetite for lending above 85% loan-to-value.

Rising house prices also caused the volume of loans above 100% LTV to drop significantly. Barclays now holds £910m of loans worth more than the property’s value, a 43% reduction on last year.

Interest-only mortgages comprise £52.5bn of the total £125bn, £43bn are owner-occupied with the remaining £9bn buy-to-let.

Overall, Barclays reported a 7% fall in underlying profits for the first half.