Available products drop to new low
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At the end of December 2007, 24,094 products were available to brokers in the UK. This dropped to 5,095 at the end of December last year, amounting to a fall of 79% in the past year.
The number of variable rate products went from 6,628 at the end of 2007 to just 381 by the end of last year.
This represents a fall of 94%, the biggest drop recorded for all the product types in December.
Availability of fixed rate deals has declined by 73%, going from 11,615 in 2007 to 3,196 at the end of 2008.
But fixed rates still emerge as the dominant product type despite the recorded fall-off in availability. Fixed rate deals now account for 63% of all available products compared to 48% in 2007.
Mark Lofthouse, chief executive officer of Mortgage Brain, says: “These figures portray a clear and vivid picture of the decline in the number of mortgage products available to consumers through brokers.
“It’s expected that the market will continue to fluctuate due to the ongoing effects of the credit crunch within the global economy.”
But he adds that although these figures are low they are still up on where they were six years ago. In 2002 the number of available products stood at less than 4,000, compared to the current 5,095.
