Mortgage approvals jumped 40% in September, making it the highest monthly level since the critical slump in 2009.
By the end of the month, nearly 43,000 loans for house purchases were made, according to the British Bankers Association.
The BBA reported that gross mortgage lending rose to £9.7bn in September, which was also a 45-month high.
The peak period for mortgage approvals was December 2006, when just over 78,000 were granted. That was a year before the housing market shrivelled in the face of the global financial crisis.
House purchases have been increasing slowly for the last year, but the Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme was given the market a boost.
The Government has embarked on the second phase of its Help to Buy scheme, which will extend £12bn of taxpayer-backed guarantees on mortgages. Unlike phase one, launched in April, it is available to the whole market rather than just new-build homes.
But in what would be a real rags to riches scenario, fears are mounting that a bubble in house prices may hit, with concern that the Help to Buy packages may create too much demand with little attention paid to the issue of supply.
