High street banks approved the highest number of mortgages for house purchase for 12 months in June – but still down on the year before.

Data from banking trade body UK Finance shows there were 47,175 approvals for home purchase during June, the highest number since the same month of 2017 when there were 49,527 home loans approved.

Despite being at an annual high, the number of approvals are still down 4.7% annually.

This was steeper than the 3.8% drop recorded in May.

Remortgages continued to dominate the market with approvals up 3.4% annually to 29,819.

Commenting on the figures, Mike Scott, chief property analyst at Yopa, said: “These figures reveal a new slowdown in the housing market.

“The detailed figures for June are not yet available, but it’s likely that the drop in the total number of mortgages reflects a large fall in the number of buy-to-let mortgages, with first-time buyer mortgages holding up better.

“The number of remortgages was up by 3.4%, and some of that money may find its way back into the housing market through the bank of mum and dad.”