The number of mortgages approved by the main high street banks in November was 10.6% lower than in November 2017 and remortgage approvals fell by 20.3%.
Approvals for house purchase were 1.2% lower and approvals for other secured borrowing fell by 12.2%.
Eric Leenders, managing director of personal finance at UK Finance, said: “Overall mortgage borrowing across the residential property market remains stable and the trend in households' cash savings remains steady."
Jeremy Leaf, north London estate agent and former RICS residential chairman, commented: "These numbers chart market activity, or lack of it, in the autumn prior to further arguments about the merits or otherwise of Brexit.
"On the ground, we have not found that the question about leaving the EU is as relevant as affordability and accessibility, which are compromising confidence. Nevertheless, we have noticed encouraging signs of more first-time buyers taking advantage of reduced competition from tax-hit buy-to-let landlords and dipping their toe in the market once again and have no reason to doubt that won’t continue into the new year.
"Looking forward, we don’t expect to see any fireworks at least until political negotiations are resolved one way or the other."
