A rush to get property purchases over the line before last month’s stamp duty rise pushed UK mortgage lending to a four-year high in March, official data shows.

The Bank of England data showed that net borrowing of mortgage debt surged by £9.7bn to reach £13bn in March.

Brokers say lenders have been stepping up a mortgage price war, with more providers this week cutting the cost of some of their new fixed-rate deals to below 4%, and a growing number loosening their affordability rules to enable homebuyers to borrow more.

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