Mortgage lending reached a record level in July, with a significant increase on figures for the same period last year, Council of Mortgage Lenders’ (CML) latest statistics revealed.

The figures showed that lending in July totalled £34.4bn, a 13% increase on the same month in 2006. Andy Pratt, chief operating officer at Alexander Hall, said the increase was partly due to the growing popularity of remortgaging among consumers. He commented: “Because people can now change their mortgage, many consumers have turned from tracker mortgages to fixed, hoping to get in before another rate change.”

Pratt said the trend will continue as people increasingly plan to remortgage, with more people abandoning the idea of moving in favour of making improvements to their homes.

Tanya Jackson, media relations manager at Yorkshire Building Society, said despite the CML figures, it did not attribute increased lending to a change in consumer attitudes. She added: “It seems more a case of lending increasing with house prices. As prices have gone up, lending has been broadly in keeping with the house price index.”

Andrew Oakes, head of intermediary sales at the Cheshire Building Society, said its own figures suggest that lending had increased. He said: “To date, we have seen a 16% increase in our average loan sizes. As property prices rise, there will be a need to fund these activities.”