The central bank reported 70,309 house purchase loans completions during the month. This was a drop from January’s total of 76,753 but considerably higher than the 52,537 recorded in February 2013.

Remortgage lending was also below recent levels with 33,902 loans completed in February, the lowest monthly total for eight months. Again this figure was higher than the 28,258 recorded a year ago.

However, gross mortgage lending was up both month-on-month and year-on-year with £17.8bn secured on dwellings in February. This was made up on £11.1bn of house purchase mortgages and £5.3bn in remortgage loans. The remaining £610m of lending was completed on other types of loans.

The £17.8bn headline figure compares to £12.8bn a year ago and £17.3bn recorded in January, the Bank reported.

Mortgage repayments continued to trend upwards with £15.6bn repaid last month, slightly higher than the £15.4bn recorded in January. Both figures are significantly up on the £12.5bn recorded a year ago.