According to official data, mortgage lending rose by its lowest amount in three years in July, even though the number of loan approvals hit a year high.

It is an indicator that the cooling house market might be on the way of stabilising. Analysts are of the view that according to the figures of the Bank of England, Britons who are in debt are becoming reluctant to borrow more.

BoE said that the net mortgage lending rose by 6.45 billion pounds last month, which is below the forecast of the analysts. The annual growth rate was the weakest in 3-1/2 years. It slowed down by 10.4 per cent.  The slump in the British property market has left house prices stagnating. This is because of the double-digit property price increase a year ago.

A UK economist at RBS Financial Markets was of the view of that the customers have become more averse to the idea of taking on new debt and that there was now some stability in the housing market.  The BoE showed that the monthly credit card lending shot up in July by a meager 312 million pounds. This is the lowest in the past four years. Nevertheless, the credit of the net consumer rose by 1.2 billion pounds, which is less than the 1.5 billion pound increase expected by the analysts.

A survey by the employers' group, the Confederation of British Industry, showed that the trend for the British retail sales sank to its lowest in 22 years. Vicky Redwood at Capital Economics was of the view of that data on the household borrowing and spending provides a consistent picture of continued weakness in consumer activity.