Mortgage lending increased by 18% in the third quarter of the year to £38.9 billion in comparison to the previous three months.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) figures show mortgage lending was up 2% in September compared with August, but still down 27% on September 2008.

The CML believes the lift in lending could now have hit a plateau.

Paul Samter, CML economist told the BBC: "House buying activity is running at considerably higher levels than around the turn of the year.

"However, it remains weak on any historic comparison and is unlikely to rise much further given the constraints the lending community faces and a still difficult economic backdrop."