Number of 85% LTV deals up 22%
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The number of 85% LTV deals has increased by 22% since December 2009, show the latest figures from moneysupermarket.com.
The number of 90% LTV deals has also risen by 11%, with the average mortgage rates falling across the board.
There are now 384 products available to those with a 15% deposit and 165 products available for those with a 10% deposit.
Rates across all mortgage products have begun to creep down since October last year. Rates for 80% LTVs have fallen hardest, with the average rate now sitting at 4.97%, 0.77% lower than in October last year.
Hannah-Mercedes Skenfield, mortgages channel manager at moneysupermarket.com, says: “Lenders seem to have started 2010 with their doors open and are clearly more open to mortgage lending than they have been for some time.
“The increase in products available at 85% and 90% is particularly encouraging for first-time buyers, as scraping together a large deposit is not easy, and was the reason many prospective first-time buyers deserted the market in their droves last year.
“Whilst rates are obviously lower for those with a higher cash deposit, it is encouraging to see rates starting to drop across all LTV products. Although there are only nine products available at 95% LTV, the average rate has fallen by 0.71% since October.
“It is not all good news though; last week’s announcement by Skipton Building Society increasing their SVR indicates we might see an increase in rates elsewhere in the mortgage market. This coupled with the sharp increase in inflation could lead to a reversal in this trend.”
Readers' comments (2)
Wayne Evans | 26 Jan 2010 2:29 pm
As "first time" buyers are the life blood of the new mortgage market - how many of completions are made by FTB - these people struggle to find a 5% deposit never mind 10-15%
Until this end of the market place is addressed with realistic competitive rates we will never see an upturn in the mortgage market
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Matt Ifia | 27 Jan 2010 9:38 am
I've been looking at mortgage products for a while, and when i started looking in August 2009, i was able to get a 5 year fix at 5.99% with a 10% deposit. Now the best I can find is 6.39%. That's hardly an improvement!!
In my opinion articles like the above distort what's happening in the market and give people false optimism.
Sure there may be more deals out there. There may even be a slight lowering of the average rate. However, when you look at some lenders charging 7%+ when the base rate is at an all time low, it's definitely not a competitive market!!
The banks need to stop bleeding buyers dry to make up for their incompetence that lead to their near collapse during the credit crunch.
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