What the BBA figures do show, though, is that the housing market is rebounding from a slowdown this year. "Activity is benefiting from August's interest rate cut, increasing confidence in the housing market and still rising employment," Howard Archer, chief economist at Global Insight, said. "This is likely to put a floor under house prices."

According to the BBA figures, approvals -- the number of loans agreed but not yet made -- totalled 71,310 in November. That was down slightly from 72,328 in October but 51 per cent higher than a year ago.

"Approvals, particularly for house purchase, continued to be strong with little evidence of the normal seasonal slowdown,", David Dooks, of the BBA, said.

"Gross lending on mortgages reached a very high level in November confirming the recovery in the housing market after a relatively weaker early part of the year."

The figures are not adjusted to reflect seasonal patterns in the housing market, however, which means they can be volatile from month to month.

The BBA said that November’s rise in seasonally-adjusted net mortgage lending was an unrevised £5.1 billion, up from £4.3 billion in October, and the biggest increase since July 2004.

According to Global Insight, this year's November figure is up on the average November level for the five-year period 2000-2004. although it was below the peak November level of 80,414 in 2003, when the housing market was close to the peak of its most recent boom.

But Mr Archer does not foresee any new boom coming soon: "We remain highly doubtful that house prices will move substantially higher on a sustained basis any time soon," he said.

"Specifically, Global Insight is forecasting house prices to rise by around 3 per cent in 2006.

"Most affordability ratios are still stretched and will become more so if house prices start moving back up markedly.

"If house prices start to accelerate markedly, we believe buyer interest will soon diminish, thereby keeping a lid on prices."

One factor which may influence that prediction is the Bank of England's decision on interest rates, with one survey of 15 leading City analysts published today showing that half of them expect a 0.25 per cent rate cut as soon as February, with the majority predicting that rates will be around 4 to 4.25 per cent by the end of 2006.

Elsewhere in today's BBA figures, net lending on loans and overdrafts during November rose by £100 million from the previous month following October’s £500 million. That was well down on the average rise over the last six months.

However, net lending on credit cards rose by £100 million but that was in line with the average increase over the previous six months.

House prices defy huffers and puffers