Slim rise in broker products
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The number of mortgage products available to brokers stayed relatively flat in April with a gain of 88 products over the month.
The latest figures from Mortgage Brain show that the total number of mortgage products for brokers listed on Mortgage Brain’s sourcing system rose by 2% last month, going from 4,665 on April 5 to 4,753 as at May 5.
But although April only saw a small increase in product numbers, the number of broker deals has consistently risen for nine out of the last 10 months, with the exception of March.
Variable rate deals have grown in number for the fifth consecutive month, rising 7% to reach 409.
Fixed rate deals rose by 3% following their first drop in six months during March.
There are currently 2,921 available fixed rate deals, up from 2,840 on April 5.
But trackers dropped for the second month in a row, going from 1,441 to 1,423.
Mark Lofthouse, CEO of Mortgage Brain, says: “Considering the turbulent year we’ve had being able to report an increase in overall mortgage product availability for nine out of the last 10 months is great news for the industry.
“Bar the slight drop in the number of trackers, product availability is up across all areas again and the longer term analysis is still showing vast improvements with a 43% increase in mortgage product availability being seen compared to this time last year.”
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Readers' comments (2)
Bobby | 11 May 2010 11:18 am
Why do commentators keep baning on about the number of products and that less than 5000 is " great news " considering there were over 35000 in 2007. Also its not the number of products available is whether the lenders are actually LENDING on those products and all the evidence to hand suggests they are not.
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Anonymous | 11 May 2010 11:43 am
As Bobby points out the number of products is a million miles away from where it was, but more importantly so is the criteria. Whilst there are not many people advocating a return to the sub prime products of old, there needs to be some element of adverse/specialist/sub prime, or whatever tag you give it. If we had 100,000 products with lenders offering the very same criteria it would not make a difference. We need a different approach from lenders who actually want to lend. Thankfully we have seen Kensington come back in to the market and offer a shake up, with I Group also dipping their toes in. Could Aldermore be the kick start the market needs? I hope so as without these type of lenders the market will not move forward. Competition for business is required across the board, not just for super prime low LTV deals. 50 specialist products with willing lenders would have a much greater impact than thousands more products offering the very same as is available now.
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