Mortgage approval levels grew to their highest rate for more than a year and a half in December 2005, according to figures released by the Bank of England.

The number of loans approved for house purchases in the last month of 2005 reached 122,000, 6,000 higher than in November outperforming the average of 106,000 over the last six months.

The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has predicted that mortgage approvals will reach 1.33 million this year, which would represent a growth on last year’s levels but still less than in 2002.