Mortgage lending for house purchases showed its first significant increase since early 2007 in July, according to the latest Council of Mortgage Lenders' survey.

Homebuyers took out a total of 56,000 loans totaling £7.5bn, 24% more than in June and 19% more than in July last year. The value of those loans was up 27% on June's figure, and 6% higher than in July 2008.

The number of first-time buyers successfully applying for loans also increased by 18% in July compared to the previous month, and by 22% compared to July 2008, to 20,400.

But while remortgaging increased by 21% in July compared to June, the percentage was still 53% down compared to July 2008.

More than three quarters of mortgages taken out in July had fixed rates, with borrowers able to lock in to an average fixed rate of 4.7%, substantially below the average of 5.57% during the past decade.

Paul Samter, CML economist, said: "It's tempting to call the turn in the mortgage market at this point, and there is certainly concrete evidence that lending for house purchase is increasing. But there are still constraints affecting the lending industry's capacity to fund increased lending, as well as less consumer motivation to remortgage for the time being.

"The overall lending picture is likely to stay relatively subdued for some time, especially as the wider economy is far from robust as yet."

The CML survey follows further news of house price increases from Halifax last week, which reported a 0.8% rise in house prices during August, and a 1.7% increase during the past three months, although prices were still actually 10.1% down on July 2008.