The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has estimated that gross mortgage lending reached £16.5 billion last month.

This is 21% higher than February (£13.6 billion), and 7% higher than March last year (£15.4 billion).

Gross mortgage lending for the first quarter of this year was therefore an estimated £44.9 billion. This represents a 12% decrease from the last three months of 2014, and a 3% decrease on the first quarter of 2014.

Bob Pannell, CML chief economist, said: “The underlying lending picture is stabilising. Sentiment and activity are showing early signs of improvement, and should be further supported by the effects of stamp duty reform.

“We expect to see lending strengthen over the next few months, albeit from a relatively sluggish start in 2015.”

Jonathan Harris, director of mortgage broker Anderson Harris, said: “Mortgage approvals continue their moderate rise, as the mainstream market remains largely unaffected by the uncertainty created by the general election while the upper end of the market takes a pause.

“With the Bank of England uncertain as to when interest rates will rise, what chance do mere borrowers have? The vast majority are opting for fixed rates to give them some certainty and with lenders reducing those further in recent weeks, we are seeing the cheapest deals in a generation.

“Buy-to-let is the real lending success story, seeing a huge improvement in terms of deals available, rates and relaxing of criteria since the downturn. While lenders abandoned the market in their droves after the onset of the financial crisis, they are well and truly back, and with pension freedoms introduced this month, many are sensing further opportunities.”