mortgage lending showed no sign of slowing down last month as the traditional summer upturn helped boost the number of approvals for home loans.

The British Bankers' Association (BBA) said the value of loans approved for buying a property reached £9.43bn during the month - the highest figure since May last year.

Approvals for people remortgaging to get a better deal also remained strong at £7.45bn, 54 per cent above the figure for June last year, while loans for equity release were 56 per cent higher at £1.75bn, although the BBA said that figures for June 2002 were distorted by the Queen's Jubilee and the football World Cup.

Overall, 256,600 mortgages were approved last month, with a total value of £18.6bn, with the average value of a loan for house purchase increasing to £102,900.

David Dooks, BBA director of statistics, said: "June is usually influenced by higher summer mortgage lending activity, and this year is no different.

"After allowing for this seasonal upturn, there seems little sign of any dramatic change in trend, although the number of loans approved for house purchase strengthened appreciably and there was a noticeable shift upwards in the average value."

Credit card lending for the month remained low, rising by only £208m, compared with a jump of £523m in May, although the BBA said some of the spending may have been on cards from issuers which are not covered in its data, which only includes lending by major UK banks.