The Council of Mortgage Lenders has warned that the housing market rises seen in the last couple of months may now have stabilised at very low levels.

The CML said that despite an increase in sales, the number of mortgages was not rising as quickly because of fewer people deciding to remortgage.  A spokesman for the group noted that with many people feeling unsure about their jobs and the overall economy no large increases look likely in the next few months.

Remortgaging is the one area of the market which continues to see little or no progress, but even new sales are still at much lower levels than in previous years despite a slight upturn.

“Underneath the headline gross lending figure, it’s likely that a moderate improvement in house purchase lending in May has been offset by very low remortgaging volumes as borrowers stay with existing deals,” said a CML spokesman.