A slight rise in the amount lent last month by mortgage firms still leaves the market far smaller than it was last year, the data shows.
The mortgage market remains sluggish, figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) show.
Released today, the new data shows that just under £25 billion was lent over July - around five percent up on June's figure. Despite this slight climb, however, the overall lending figure remains 27 percent lower than that marked in July 2007, just prior to the onset of the credit crunch.
Bob Pannell, CML head of research, said: "While there was a small month-on-month increase in activity, it represented a notable decline from a year ago."
He added: "This continues the weaker picture seen in June and points towards the more subdued levels of lending we are likely to see in the second half of 2008."
According to latest house price surveys from lenders Nationwide and Halifax, the value of the average UK property has declined in value by over eight percent in the last year.
Home sale numbers are also running at around half the rate of last year, due to the constriction of lending that has resulted from the global credit crunch. Moreover, the CML has previously said that just three in ten mortgages made recently have been for new home purchases, rather than remortgaging.
