Mortgage approvals edged up to a five-month high in September but were still down on the year before.

Figures from the British Bankers Association (BBA) showed 31,175 mortgages were approved in September.

This was up from 30,683 in August and a low of 26,064 in June, when mortgages were held back by two days of public holiday.

However, mortgage approvals were still down 6% year-on-year and around half the level of long term norms.

Net mortgage lending totalled £347m in September following a rare net repayment of £304m in August.

The net mortgage lending figure was down by 53.4% year-on-year from £744m in September 2011.

Dr Howard Archer, Chief UK Economist at IHS, said the BBA mortgage data point to a housing market still struggling to get out of the doldrums.

"We see no reason to change our view that house prices will trend gradually lower over the final months of 2012 and early months of 2013 at least," he said.

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