The Financial Conduct Authority has confirmed that it is to launch a study of the mortgage market early next year – something it first announced back in June.

The regulator, which commenced a review into responsible lending in April, will be specifically looking at stringent new rules brought in under the Mortgage Market Review in spring 2014.

It will be one of three reviews over the next year.

As well as a post-MMR responsible lending review, there will be a more general review of the mortgage market, and a review into financial advice which will encompass mortgage advice.

Under MMR, mortgage applicants now go through affordability checks, which include scrutinising their spending habits and assessing their ability to keep up payments in the event of a interest rate rise.

Speaking yesterday at the FCA conference in central London, Christopher Woolard, director of strategy and competition at the FCA, said there had been questions as to whether “those interventions might lead to a drying-up of the market … The MMR alone was predicted to affect mortgage approvals by anything up to 20%”.

Instead, he said, mortgage approvals had risen.

But, he went on: “There is clearly a question here as to what the ideal level of activity is and how you achieve it.

“No one, frankly, wants to return to the unaffordable lending practices of the past where almost every application was approved.

“We do however have to remain sensitive to the impact of these reforms over the long run.”

He said: “Even if we believe our rules are proportionate, we need to remain alert to how firms are interpreting them and the effect on consumers.

“That is why we will be undertaking a mortgage market study soon, which will include a review on key aspects of the implementation of the MMR.”

In his speech, Woolard also said that “few issues in the UK matter more to the general public than home ownership.

“As a nation we consume huge amounts of information about property. We are borrowing more. And we’re spending increasing amounts of disposable income on homes.”

On the one hand, he said, home owners were willing property values up; on the other, first-time buyers were willing prices down.