The Bank of England said that the number of home loans approved for house purchases in January fell by 17% compared with the previous month.
The 48,198 approvals was the lowest number for eight months, but still 43% higher than a year earlier.
Experts have said the end of the stamp duty holiday was behind the drop.
The stamp duty threshold dropped back to £125,000 on 1 January, prompting a rush on mortgage approvals and completed home sales in the final months of 2009.
The government concession, which had temporarily pushed the threshold up to £175,000 for just over a year, had been aimed at halting the rapid slump in the property market.
Gross mortgage lending fell from £13.5bn to £10.2bn in January, with commentators also pointing to the severe winter weather as affecting housing market activity.
A range of groups, including the Council of Mortgage Lenders and the British Bankers’ Association, have said that lending and activity dropped at the start of the year.
The Bank of England figures also indicate that the record low Bank rate of 0.5% – and low variable mortgage rates – has deterred people from signing up to new fixed-rate mortgages. The number of homeowners remortgaging dropped to 23,611 in January, from 27,322 in December.
