Mortgage approvals declined in September for the first time in four months, the Bank of England has reported.

Approvals for house purchase were 68,874, down from 70,664 in August, and below a Reuters forecast of 72,450.

However, September’s figure is the second highest so far this year and above the monthly average of 66,900 over the previous six months.

The BoE data follows a report from the British Bankers Association, which said that mortgage approvals by the big banks in September were the lowest since May.

In other news, the NHBC reported that new homes registrations fell by 2% in the third quarter of this year.

In total, 36,219 new homes were registered, compared with 36,955 in the same quarter last year.

However, the overall year-to-date figures up to and including September show that the number of new homes registered with NHBC is 9% higher than this time last year (117,525 against 108,118 in 2014).