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The Bank of England has reported that households borrowed an extra £3.2 billion secured against their homes in July,  the lowest monthly secured net lending since April 2017.

Despite this, the annual growth rate for mortgage lending remained unchanged at 3.2% in July, and has now been around 3% since late 2016.

Although this is above the growth rate between 2009 and 2013, it remains modest compared to the pre-crisis period, the Bank said.

UK property transactions fell by 0.8% from the month before and 3.2% year-on-year in July – leading to experts labelling the market as ‘flat’ and ‘stagnant’.

There were 99, 270 property transactions in July, seasonally adjusted figures from the HM Revenue and Customs show.

Kevin Roberts, director of Legal & General Mortgage Club, said: “Despite increased innovation in the property industry and assistance from government schemes such as Help to Buy and shared ownership, property transactions remain stagnant.

Average house prices have increased by 3.0% in the year to June 2018 but were down from 3.5% in May 2018, its lowest annual rate since August 2013 when it was also 3.0%, the ONS House Price Index has found.

The annual growth rate has slowed since mid-2016 and has remained under 5%, with the exception of October 2017, throughout 2017 and into 2018.

House prices gained a bit of momentum in July after rising at their slowest annual rate in five years in June, mortgage lender Nationwide said on Wednesday.

House prices across the United Kingdom were on average 2.5pc higher than in July last year, faster than growth of 2.0pc in June and above a forecast for a 1.9pc rise in a Reuters poll of economists.

In monthly terms, prices rose by 0.6pc in July from June, faster than a forecast of 0.2pc.

Arrangement fee-free mortgages now represent 40% of the mortgage market, according to new Moneyfacts data.

The number of fee-free products on the market has grown steadily over the past two years, from 1,270 - 33% of the market - in July 2016 to 1,709 (36%) in July 2017 and 2,007 today.

However Moneyfacts has noted that when choosing a fee-free deal, borrowers may be missing out on offers that could be more cost-effective in the long run.

The number of properties available to buy rose by 12% in May, as sellers anticipated a summer slow-down and raced to get offers secured, NAEA Propertymark’s May Housing Report has found.

There were 37 homes available per branch in May, compared to 33 in April.

During the summer months the market is typically quieter, as buyers and sellers go on holiday. So in line with this, supply has increased every May since 2015.

Potential first-time buyers would have lower monthly outgoings if they bought a property rather than renting one, with rental prices surpassing average mortgage repayments in every region of the UK, Santander Mortgages has found.

Homeowners could save £2,268 a year if they were able to purchase a property rather than rent.

Around 22.4% of mortgage approvals were for first-time buyers in May, up from 20.2% in April.

Overall approvals also rose by 6.4% from the month before to 66,479 on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Richard Sexton, director at e.surv, said: “There was strong growth in the mortgage market in May, with approvals rising significantly compared to April.

“While the base rate may have stayed at 0.5% in May, speculation continues about the next increase, which appears to be coming sooner rather than later.”

A third of people preparing to buy their first house are six times more likely to struggle to save for their deposit than those buying 20-30 years ago, self-storage company, Space Station, has found.

While one in three people (33%) currently saving for a home said they had been forced to delay by the challenge of saving a deposit, only one in 20 people (5%) who bought their first home between 1988 and 1998 reported the same struggle.

May saw the highest number of new sellers list their properties in any single month since pre-2017, the latest Property Supply Index by online estate agents HouseSimple.com has found.  

Across 100 major UK towns and cities,73,577 new properties were marketed by estate agents in May, compared to 68,500 in April, a 7.4% increase.