Britain's mortgage growth finally is slowing down in March following the three interest rate rises since last August, the British Bankers' Association said on Monday.

Data from the Association on Tuesday showed approvals for home loans -- a leading indicator of house prices -- were 5 percent lower in February than a year ago.

Mortgage lender Nationwide said house prices rose 0.4 percent in March compared to a downward revised increase of 0.6 percent in February. That took the annual rate of house price inflation down to 9.3 percent in March from 10.2 percent.

Mortgage lending picked up to 2.1 billion pounds (3.5 billion U.S. dollars) in March from under 1.9 billion pounds (3.2 billion dollars) in the previous month.

"In the last two months, demand has moderated a little and, with no short-term prospect of costs reducing, mortgage lending growth should ease further in the months ahead," said BBA's David Dooks.

Source: Xinhua