Figures released today look surprisingly positive, and highlight the strength of the housing market before the Coronavirus crisis took hold in the UK.

Mortgage approvals for house purchase (an indicator for future lending) had continued to rise in February, reaching 73,500, said the Bank of England. This was the highest level since January 2014, and stronger than in recent years.

Approvals for remortgages also rose to 53,400 last month. Net mortgage borrowing by households – which lags approvals – was £4.0 billion in February, close to average seen over the past six months.

The annual growth rate for mortgage borrowing picked up to 3.5%.

Andrew Montlake, managing director of mortgage broker, Coreco, said: “Never before has such strong mortgage approvals data rung so hollow. It feels like it came from another time.

“Within just a few weeks the property and mortgage markets have gone from strength to abject uncertainty.

”To say the property market is in uncharted territory is an understatement.

“We’re confident things will eventually get back on track but the great unknown in the current highly fluid environment is when. The hope is that the mortgage market rebounds as fast as it is deteriorating once we come out the other side of Covid-19.

“For now the most important thing is that every lender supports borrowers as best it can in these most challenging times.”