The Bank of England’s quarterly survey revealed some encouraging opinions regarding the UK housing market. Those polled displayed more willingness to lend to those with a small deposit. Lenders say this is due to an increase in the access to loans for borrowers with a deposit of less than 25%. Lenders, as a group, are seeing some relief of mortgage availability for the first time in two years.

Nationwide even reported an increase for the second month in a row in average house prices, to 164,751 pounds.

The good news was hampered by the increase in households defaulting on their mortgage loans. This was the first increase in almost two years. Lenders expected a slight climb in the number of defaults due to the possibility of upcoming higher interest rates.

Lenders noted an increase in the number of remortgages. This is a direct result of families wanting to lock in a low interest rate, to protect themselves from an increase. In addition to seeing remortgages increase, lenders found a significant decline in the number of new mortgage applications.

Vicky Redwood, economist at Capital Economics, commented on the move in default rates, saying: "The unexpected increase in default rates on secured lending in the first quarter may temper their enthusiasm for lending more. And even if they are willing to lend more, [the] survey showed households' demand for secured lending for house purchases fell sharply again."

One Bank of England policymaker, David Miles, commented on the up and down world of mortgage cost and availability, saying: "It probably never made sense for there to be 100pc mortgages."