Mortgage lending in the UK reached £217.7bn between March 2023 and February 2024, which is a drop of 28.6%, Octane Capital has found.

The lender said that as a result, seasonal housing market trends should bring a welcome boost to mortgage lending as spring and summer come into fruition.

Between March 2022 and February 2023, mortgage lending reached £304.9bn.

Octane Capital said there are a number of factors that have led to this decline in mortgage lending over the past year, including the increased cost of borrowing due to heightened interest rates.

Furthermore, the cost of living crisis has resulted in limited buyer purchasing power, and as a result, limited mortgage lending market activity.

However, the lender added that over the past five years, the summer season has seen mortgage lending totals increase by an average of 11.7% compared to the spring months.

The summer boost has occurred every year for the past half decade, with the largest single bump coming last year, when mortgage lending total rose by 24.7%.

As such, Octane Capital said that its research suggests that while the market is showing strong signs of recovery at present, the biggest survey in mortgage market activity is yet to come in 2024.

Chief executive officer at Octane Capital, Jonathan Samuels, said: "There is a real sense of optimism in the UK property market at the moment. It’s been a promising start to the year with mortgage lending seeing an uptick, mortgage approvals doing the same, and even house prices starting to slowly climb after a period of stagnation.

"The picture is set to improve further as spring makes way for summer and seasonal market trends bring a healthy boost to the market. As such, we expect house prices to continue to stabilise which will inevitably tempt more sellers back to the fold."

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