Mortgage lending fell by £1.7 billion in November compared with the previous month as the housing market continued to cool, banks and building societies have reported.

An estimated £16.9 billion of home loans were handed out in November, a 9% slide compared with the £18.6 billion advanced in October, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said.

November's mortgage lending total matched the £16.9 billion advanced in November last year.

CML economist Mohammad Jamei said the housing market "appears to have settled", with property sales having fallen back to levels seen around a year ago.

He said the stamp duty reforms announced in the Autumn Statement could produce a fresh burst of activity, although the effects of this are likely to be modest and short-term, with southern England set to see the biggest boost.

The CML has said that overall, it expects mortgage lending to grow more slowly over the next couple of years than the jump seen this year.

In a market forecast released recently, it said that around £207 billion of mortgages will have been advanced this year, compared with £176 billion last year.

Next year, it expects £222 billion of mortgages to be handed out, with the total for 2016 reaching £240 billion. These gross annual lending figures for the next couple of years would still sit below the £254 billion in 2008.

The CML said housing market activity has generally been nudging lower since the summer, which is consistent with its view that affordability considerations are placing limits on the scope for house sales to increase.

Its forecast said that improved access to mortgage deals has played a key part in supporting the housing market recovery. But it also said that while the prospect of a recovery in people's real earnings is becoming "more plausible", it is "still not a foregone conclusion".

In the Autumn Statement, the Government replaced the old stamp duty rules, whereby a home buyer paid the tax at a single rate on the entire property price, with a graduated version of the tax.

This means buyers will only pay the rate of tax on the part of the property price that falls within each stamp duty bracket, in a similar way to how income tax is levied.

Some experts have said there could be a new year bounce in housing market activity as more people are encouraged to move. The stamp duty changes mean the tax will be cut for 98% of people who are liable to pay it.

Mr Jamei said: "The reform in stamp duty is likely to provide a modest short-term boost in activity over the next few months, but its impact will fade away in the medium term."

He said the stamp duty reforms will benefit G reater London and the South more than elsewhere, as buyers will make the biggest relative savings on homes valued just above the thresholds of the old system, for example on properties selling for just over £250,000 or £500,000.

Mr Jamei said: "In London and the South East, first-time buyers and home-movers alike will benefit as prices are on average higher so more homes are subject to higher rates of tax."

Home buyers at the very top end of the market will pay more stamp duty than under the old system, but Mr Jamei said the reform may have an "indirect benefit" on housing market activity in this bracket.

He said: " Some of the recent softness in the prime housing market has been down to uncertainties regarding the possible introduction of a mansion tax. Market expectations of these risks may have dissipated somewhat, which could aid a recovery at the top end of the market."