The season has started well for the Under 11's without conceding a defeat yet!

A total of £32.4bn was advanced to 188,000 consumers buying a property during the three months to the end of September, the highest level on both measures for any quarter since 2007. The number of first-time buyers entering the market also continued to increase, with 84,100 mortgages advanced to people taking their first step on the property ladder during the third quarter, 15 per cent more than during the same period of 2013.

But on a monthly basis, there were further signs that the housing market is beginning to slow. Lending to home movers weakened for the second month in a row during September to 31,700 loans, 10 per cent fewer than in August, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders. Advances to first-time buyers also dropped for the second consecutive month, falling by 3 per cent to 26,800 loans worth £4 billion, a 2 per cent drop.

But remortgaging numbers bucked the trend as homeowners prepared for future interest rate rises. A total of 28,300 mortgages were taken out by people switching to a new deal in September, 20 per cent more than in August. Many consumers are likely to have been tempted to remortgage in recent weeks by the highly competitive rates currently being offered as lenders compete to fill their annual quotas by the end of the year.

Paul Smee, director general of the CML, said: “We are approaching the end of 12 months’ of change, transition and growth. “The lending market is healthier than it was a year ago, and set to remain so. “But any fears of overheating in the housing market are now dissipating as house purchase lending activity seems to be softening.” Today’s figures add to growing evidence that the housing market is beginning to cool, as more properties are put up for sale, easing the previous mismatch between supply and demand.

Recent figures from Halifax showed that house prices eased by 0.4 per cent during October, while Nationwide reported a slowdown in the annual rate of growth. Recent house price gains have pushed up the average cost of a home in Britain to £267,834, according to Zoopla.

Last year remembered The UK housing market saw a spring and summer boom in 2014, particularly in London and the South of England, before activity dropped away a little towards the end of the year. Recently published figures from the Nationwide Building Society - the first to record the annual change over the whole of 2014 - suggest that UK house prices rose 7.2% during the year.

This is based on the Nationwide's own lending data and masks some significant regional differences. For example, prices in London rose by 17.8% over the course of the year, according to the lender, compared with 1.4% in Wales. Another survey, by rival lender the Halifax, says that prices rose by 8.5% over the year, although its official house price index data has not yet been published.

The rise in prices and activity is reflected in the number of people buying carpets. Wilf Walsh, chief executive of Carpetright, says that the outlook is "mixed", but there are signals of pent-up demand being released. Ian James, president of the National Institute of Carpet and Floorlayers, says that business is "still a bit slow in the North East" of England, but has been picking up elsewhere.

"The last five years have been pretty poor," he says, explaining that many fitters could not find enough work from independent carpet retailers.

"But we can see the shoots of recovery. We had our biggest trade show in years. There is a trend of [consumers] going back to carpet instead of cheaper laminate flooring."