The number mortgage applications approved reached a four-month high in June, Bank of England figures show. The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has also revised its prediction of lending figures for 2014 upwards - to more than £200 billion.

More than 67,000 approvals were made for house purchases last month, showing an 8% increase on May - which was the first full month after stricter mortgage lending rules came into force.

The figures show that despite last month’s rise in mortgage approvals, June’s total is still below an average of 68,240 seen over the previous six months.

The Bank’s figures were released as property website Zoopla published its survey of nearly 8,000 home owners - showing that 40% of them think it is now harder to get a mortgage than it was three months ago.

New rules introduced as part of the Mortgage Market Review (MMR) at the end of April, force mortgage applicants to provide more details about their spending habits. Lenders also have to use ‘stress tests’ – to ensure that a borrower could still manage their mortgage repayments if interest rates rise.

Despite the impact of MMR, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has revised its prediction for 2014 upwards to £208 billion - from a previous prediction of £195 billion worth of gross lending to take place. This is the first time that this has happened since 2008.

The CML also predicts that the stronger lending situation will lead to around £220 billion worth of advances taking place next year - up from a previous forecast of £206 billion.

The body, which represents banks and building societies, said that economic growth is continuing to underpin housing market sentiment and demand. It says that around 1.23 million house sales will take place across the UK this year - up from 1.07 million in 2013.

The CML has also scaled back its forecasts for repossessions over the next couple of years. It said the prospect of interest rate rises "feels more imminent than six months ago", however "given a favourable jobs market, it seems reasonable to think that the majority of households will cope well with initial gentle rate rises".

The CML predicts around 25,000 repossessions will take place this year, which would mark a fall from 28,900 last year and is also down from its previous forecast at the end of last year of 28,000 repossessions in 2014.

Simon Checkley from Strutt & Parker’s recommended third-party provider of bespoke mortgage advice, Private Finance, comments: “Undoubtedly new mortgage regulation, coupled with the seasonal effect, is having an impact on mortgage lending. The property market and mortgage lending has been quite robust throughout the first half of the year and it is too early to call any changes of trend especially in the light of the above factors.

"Private Finance is concerned that new regulation and stress tests are a crude and unsophisticated means by which to control the industry and impact unfairly on those lower down the housing ladder and thus negatively higher up. The economic recovery would seem to be strong and hopefully long lasting and this will underpin demand for property and mortgage lending.”