The latest Mortgage Monitor from e.surv has revealed that there were 65,879 residential mortgages approved during November 2019 (seasonally adjusted).

This represents a 2% increase in activity when compared to October’s figure and a rise of 2.8% compared to November 2018.

E.surv said one factor contributing to the rise may be that some mortgage lenders have cut mortgage rates in recent months to help meet their end-of-year lending targets.

While rates have been at a historically low level for some time, the lack of activity in the wider housing market has meant there have been fewer people seeking mortgages this year.

Banks and building societies have responded by cutting rates even further, in a bid to tempt existing homeowners to remortgage.

The charter surveyors said that this strategy appears to have worked, as evidenced by the sharp increase in remortgage approvals this month. Correspondingly, the market also shifted slightly towards those with larger deposits in November.

Some 27.7% of all loans were to borrowers with small deposits this month, down from 29.2% in October.

In the same period large deposit lending nudged up from 28.8% to 28.9% of the mortgage market.

Richard Sexton, director at e.surv, said: “It used to take a lot to tempt existing homeowners back into the mortgage market, but this is often no longer the case.

“Homeowners are increasingly clued-up and savvy when it comes to remortgaging and finding the best deals on rates.

“This rush to secure better rates may be behind the bump in approvals we have seen in November.”