Mortgage product numbers soar
Share
Nearly 1,000 new mortgage products were launched in January according to Mortgage Brain, representing the biggest monthly increase in product numbers for over a year.
Mark Lofthouse
The total number of live mortgage products listed on Mortgage Brain rose by 26% during January going from 3,534 on January 4 to 4,457 as at February 1.
This is the seventh month in a row that product availability has increased, with products numbers up 78% on the levels seen six months ago.
The number of tracker deals jumped a massive 40% in the last month, from 1,029 at the beginning of January to 1,434 currently.
But fixed-rate deals remain the dominant mortgage product, with the number of fixed rate deals available rising 24% to 2,664.
Variable rate products saw a slight rise to 359 products up from 354.
Mark Lofthouse, chief executive officer of Mortgage Brain, says: “We’re seeing a fantastic start to the New Year with mortgage product availability on the increase across the board.
“We’ve just witnessed the biggest monthly increase in 12 months which is a great achievement, and we’re continuing to see a healthy introduction of new trackers, fixed and variable rate products.”
Most popular
Most commented
-
Automated lending systems are holding back housing market
-
Action taken against two brokers for mortgage fraud
-
Star Letter - Unless lenders start to act prudently funds will continue to be limited and expensive
-
Intermediaries must fight for themselves
-
Seven in 10 keep banks in the dark over financial problems
Readers' comments (8)
Helen Adams | 3 Feb 2010 11:19 am
It's encouraging to hear that more mortgage deals are available but until lenders come up with a better offering for first time buyers the market will continue to be slow. More needs to be done to provide a realistic option for first timers - through intermediaries. Helen Adams www.FirstRungNow.coom
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
William Reid | 3 Feb 2010 11:26 am
Great news but not a lot at high LTV's or BTL's. Still, a step in the right direction.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 3 Feb 2010 11:38 am
This is indeed very encouraging news for the market but until some element of specialist lending returns to the market the amount of new products will be pretty much irrelevant as every lender is doing the same.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Graham Summerfield | 3 Feb 2010 12:04 pm
Quite right Helen, the Lenders need to do more to help First Time Buyers get on the property ladder. The Lenders are starting to move in the right direction but more work needs to be done to reduce the amount of Deposit + Fee's that FTB's need to find to get onto the the property ladder. Rightly or wrongly this country has been obsessed with property ownership over the lst couple of decades and now seems to underpin the whole of the UK economy. Once this starts to move in the right direct, prosperity will return for the rest of us..
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
PAul Silcox | 3 Feb 2010 4:37 pm
Of course, the government could really help first time buyers by letting house prices drop to natural levels (around 30-40% down from here). We could then do away with stupid schemes like buy-with-a-stranger etc. Once house prices start moving in the right direction (down) then disposable income in the young will increase, which will sustainably return propsperity to the whole country
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Mark Sutton | 3 Feb 2010 8:03 pm
We could have 14000 products available, but if they are all low ltv mainstream residential products this will sadly not help stimulate the market. Still better than nothing I guess?
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
salil chaudhari | 3 Feb 2010 8:45 pm
Credibility and confidence can be restored in the mortgage industry by the majority not following in the footsteps of Skipton and others using such clauses as to lose the trust and confidence of borrowers.Why havent any of them pledged not to raise their rates when the BBR remains the same or is reduced?
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
peter sowerby | 3 Feb 2010 9:44 pm
I agree with Paul, a real drop in property prices would open the market. But as we saw before the crunch, it isn't very likely to happen. Not with a hugh shortage in new homes being built.
An increase in products is good news, but we've still got a long way to go
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment