Bank of England: Mortgage approvals up in September

Mortgage approvals increased in September, up from August's record lows. Approvals were around 33,000 up 1,000 on the previous month. A fair amount of this can be attributed to the Government's dithering over stamp duty, which led to many prospective buyers waiting until the situation was clearer.

And net lending by building societies was still down around 50% on last year's September figures suggesting that there remains little desire among homebuyers to get either trade-up or get into the market - assuming that they can even raise the finance of course.