In April homebuyers paid the lowest interest rates ever to be seen on their mortgages, the Bank of England has reported.

Earlier in the year a number of banks and building societies withdrew some of the best deals on the market because they believed that the Bank of England would start to raise interest rates.

However, forecasts for a rate rise have been postponed, with some Bank of England officials even mulling the possibility of slashing the base rate lower than its current 0.5 per cent level.

Consequently, mortgage rates are once again falling. In April, the average borrower paid just 2.41 per cent on a new mortgage, down from 2.49 per cent in March and 2.64 per cent in April 2015.

The rate in 2013 was 3.84 per cent, and looking back to 2004 shows that the average mortgage rate 12 years ago was at a comparatively high rate of 4.55 per cent.

The Bank of England’s records also show that mortgage lending is at its highest level seen since before the financial crisis.

The volume of mortgage lending is up 17.6 per cent on last year, with 497,301 mortgages being approved between January and April.

In March, lenders gave out 124,429 mortgages, up 19 per cent year on the year, as buy-to-let investors scrambled to secure a second mortgage, beating the rise in stamp duty on second properties which came into effect in April.

“The strong suspicion is that housing market activity will be under pressure in the immediate term by a combination of weakened interest from the buy-to-let and second home sectors as well as heightened concerns and uncertainties over the UK economic outlook, particularly in the run-up to June’s referendum on EU membership,” said Howard Archer, chief economist at IHS Global Insight.

“Nevertheless, we expect housing market activity to regain limited momentum in the latter months of 2016 on the assumption that a vote to stay in the EU reduces uncertainty and supports a pick-up in economic activity. High employment, decent purchasing power and the probability that interest rates will not rise for some considerable time to come should underpin house buyer interest,” he said, adding that a shortage of properties will also support house prices.