Mortgage rates at lowest level in a year

27 April 2010 | By Natalie Thomas

Data from Moneyfacts.co.uk shows that based on a £150,000 repayment mortgage monthly payments have gone down by £50 over the last year on two-year fixed rate deals, with average rates falling from a peak of 5.21% to 4.63% today.

Rates on three-year fixed rates deals have been cut from 5.61% to 5.34% while five-year fixes have gone from 6.24% to 5.85%.

The number of mortgage products available has hit its highest level since December 2008 at 2,076, a 71.7% increase on the number of products available this time last year.

Moneyfacts.co.uk says there are now 19 mortgage deals available currently at up to 95% LTV, a 533% increase compared to the three deals on the market last April.

The number of products at up to 90% LTV have risen from 71 to 147, at 80% LTV product numbers have gone up from 186 to 345, and at 60% LTV the number of deals has grown from 285 to 379.

A spokeswoman for Moneyfacts.co.uk says: “Lenders have slowly become acclimatised to a new look mortgage market and continue to take more steps to improve the competitiveness of deals.

“A 25% deposit remains the benchmark for the majority of the most competitive deals. However, borrowers with a small deposit are increasingly getting access to a wider proportion of the market.

 “The platform is developing for a resurgence in the mortgage market, but lending figures show that there is still a way to go before the market returns to any sort of normality.”

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