The number of mortgages granted to homebuyers rose for the third consecutive month in September, with first-time buyers accounting for the bulk of new lending.

Figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders showed a 2 per cent increase in the number of loans for house purchase between August and September to 50,600 — a 43 per cent rise on September last year and a further sign of recovery in the housing market.

The increase in loans to first time buyers was 5 per cent to 19,700 in September, while home mover mortgages remained unchanged on the previous month.

Despite last month's increase, the CML figures show evidence of the lack of mortgage availability, especially for first-time buyers who do not have parental assistance. The average loan to value of a first-time buyer mortgage was 75 per cent, down from 84 per cent this time last year and higher than the 68 per cent average loan size of other home movers.

The figures also showed a rise in remortgage numbers of 10 per cent to 33,000 last month. Remortgage numbers had previously lagged mortgages for buyers as homeowners stayed on their existing deals.

Howard Archer, chief economist for Global Insight, said: "Very low mortgage interest rates are likely to remain supportive for the housing market for some considerable time to come, but other fundamentals are largely unfavourable — housing market activity is still at a low level compared to long-term norms despite improving in recent months, unemployment is high and still likely to rise further, earnings growth is low and still falling, and house price/earnings ratios are currently moving back up."

The CML said that one third of all first-time buyers, or 6,100, benefited from the stamp duty threshold extension in September, piling further pressure on the Government to extend the holiday for longer.

The Government had temporarily increased the threshold from £125,000 to £175,000 last September but is due to remove the concession from the beginning of next year.

Paul Samter, economist at the CML, said: “The stamp duty concession has played a modest role in underpinning confidence in the housing market. As the end date for the stamp duty concession approaches, we may see sustained levels of activity at the lower end of the market in a traditionally quiet time. But the corollary will be lower activity in early 2010 as transactions are "bunched" in 2009. Although the recent bounce-back in house purchase activity is holding up, we remain some way below what might be called “normal” levels of transactions."

Separate data from Connells Survey & Valuation, the national chain of surveyors, suggests that home movers overtook first-time buyers as the main source of demand in October.

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