According to figures released by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), borrowers took out £16.6bn in mortgages in August 2013, compared to £13bn in August 2012. Lending remained steady month-on-month.

CML chief economist Bob Pannell said the UK was beginning to experience a broad-based recovery in mortgage lending activity:

“We attribute much of this turnaround to the improvement in funding markets generally, and also to the Funding for Lending Scheme. The Bank of England’s approvals data suggests that the positive tone for house purchase and remortgage lending will continue.

“One tell-tale sign of a recovering housing market is the re-emergence of concerns about a housing boom. But the housing market recovery to date appears fairly unexceptional in nature, at least compared with that of the early to mid-1990s.”

Anderson Harris director Jonathan Harris said August’s figures suggested a sustained and considered improvement in the housing market, rather than a bubble.

He said: “The danger of overreaction to a house price bubble is that any confidence in the market is extinguished just as it is establishing itself. Lending volumes and house prices are still well below pre-crisis levels.” Edinburgh Mortgage Advice director Mark Dyason said the mortgage market had improved on a year previously but volumes remained historically low: “Help to Buy will only drive mortgage volumes further, although the scheme should be refined to help areas where the market is still struggling, not accentuate already overheating regions such as London.

“The Funding for Lending Scheme, without a doubt, has had a phenomenal impact on the mortgage market.”