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Guardian Unlimited : Mortgage lending increased by £1bn in November as confidence in the housing market began to return, figures out today revealed. However, consumers remained cautious about taking on unsecured debt, and the amount borrowed on credit cards was £0.3bn less than in the previous month. The figures from the Bank of England showed that when repayments where taken into account, individuals borrowed a total of £9.6bn during November - £0.7bn more than in October and £0.8bn more than the average recorded over the previous six months. Of this, £8.7bn was secured on property - an increase of 10.3% on the figure for November 2004 and 0.9% up on October's figure. The value of home loans approved was also up on the previous month, driven by an increase in the number of mortgages offered to homebuyers. The number of loans for buyers was up 2,000, at 115,000 to its highest point since May 2004, and the value of those loans reached £14.6bn. Meanwhile 107,000 remortgages were app

LONDON (Reuters) - Unsecured lending rose in November 2005 by the smallest amount in almost five years while mortgage approvals climbed to a 1-1/2 year high, the Bank of England said on Wednesday. Consumer credit rose by just 927 million pounds in the month, the run-up to the crucial Christmas shopping season, after a rise of 1.210 billion in October and by much less than forecasts for a 1.3 billion pound increase. But mortgage lending rose by a much bigger than expected 8.687 billion pounds after a 7.702 billion pound rise the month before. Analysts had forecast an increase of 7.9 billion pounds. Taken with another rise in loans for house purchase agreed but not yet made to 115,000, their highest since May 2004, the figures were evidence of more firming in the housing market after more than a year in the doldrums. Analysts said the figures were a mixed bag and did little to clarify where interest rates will go next from 4.5 percent. A majority are still predicting policymakers will tr