A further slide in approvals of new mortgages for homebuyers yesterday added to evidence that the housing market continues to cool.

The value of new home loans agreed by lenders, seen as a key barometer of market trends, fell in November to its lowest for seven months, at £12.2 billion. The number of loans agreed also dropped by 3.1 per cent to 80,000.

The decline in approvals of loans for housebuyers was accompanied by an even sharper drop in loans agreed for remortgaging purposes, so that total mortgage lending in November was sharply lower, by 10 per cent from the level a year before, at some £30 billion, the CML said.

However, Michael Coogan, the CML’s director-general, said that business activity in the mortgage market was holding up “reasonably well”, despite the pressure on lending conditions from the impact of the credit squeeze on institutions’ funding.

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