Britain's government-supported NewBuy scheme and the purchase rush by first-time property buyers ahead of the stamp duty concession ending on March 24 have helped stimulated the country's housing market.

Figures released by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) on Tuesday showed that gross mortgage lending in Britain stood steady in February at an estimated 10.7 billion British pounds (about 17 billion U.S. dollars).

The figure is almost unchanged from that of January, but was 14 percent higher than the 9.4 billion pounds a year ago. It marked the seventh month in a row of higher year on year lending.

"This indicates that lending for house purchase remains brisk in advance of the ending of the Stamp Duty," said Bob Pannell, chief economist of the CML.

"The launch of the NewBuy scheme is an important addition to lenders' toolkit in addressing the various needs of would-be borrowers," Pannell said.

"Allowing for the seasonal factors that depress activity over the winter months, the underlying picture for house purchase activity continues to show some buoyancy," he added.

British government's NewBuy scheme launched on March 12 is expected to push up property sales a bit further in the coming months.

The scheme will enable people in England to buy flats or houses of a maximum value of 500,000 pounds with a mortgage of up to 95-percent of the value of new homes.

The CML members are banks, building societies and other lenders who together undertake around 95 percent of all residential mortgage lending in Britain.