More bad news on the housing market was announced today by the Bank of England, which has reports that new mortgage approvals for house purchases dropped to a record low of 27,000 in November – at least a nine-year low.

Mortgage approvals were down from from 31,000 in October and are at the lowest level since records began in 1993.

The Bank also revealed that net mortgage lending was just £740m in November. While up from £477m in October, it was still one of the lowest levels on record and less than 10% of the £8bn of November 2007.