The latest Money and Credit report showed that mortgage approvals declined to 56,200 from 66,000 in April, coming in below the average of 63,300 over the previous six months.
Approvals for remortgaging - which only capture remortgaging with a different lender - also fell, to 33,300 in May from 51,200 in April.
Net borrowing of mortgage debt declined to £2.9bn in May from £4.4bn a month earlier, while the effect interest rate - the actual interest paid - on newly-drawn mortgages increased to 4.22% from 4.08%.
The report also showed that net borrowing of consumer credit was largely unchanged on the month at £1.7bn, with borrowing through credit cards of £0.6bn, down from £0.8bn in April. Net borrowing through other forms of consumer credit such as car dealership finance and personal loans rose to £1.1bn in May from £0.9bn a month earlier.
Households’ deposits with banks and building societies increased by £5.4bn following net deposits of £5.7bn in April. The BoE said this was driven by households depositing an additional £3.1bn into ISAs and £1.3bn into interest-bearing time accounts.