21
Dec
Mortgage market 'is slowly improving'
Supply in the mortgage market is making a slow recovery, according
to analysis carried out by moneysupermarket.com.
The price comparison site reported that the number of mortgage
products available to consumers has increased by 13 per cent since
August, although there are significantly fewer offerings with a
high loan-to-value (LTV).
However, while the number of 95 per cent LTV mortgages has dropped
considerably, 85 per cent LTV products have increased by one third
since January this year.
Hannah-Mercedes Skenfield, mortgage manager at
moneysupermarket.com, described the growth in 85 per cent LTV loans
as "particularly encouraging".
"For many consumers the real difficulty in getting on the property
ladder is in scraping together a deposit," she commented.
Ms Skenfield went on to explain that lenders' fear of increasing
the number of bad debts on their books had led to the collapse of
the high LTV mortgage market and welcomed current trends which
suggest that a wider range of financing is available to
borrowers.
Data released by the Council of Mortgage Lenders on December 18th
estimated that gross mortgage lending totalled £12 billion in
November, representing a 14 per cent fall compared with the same
month in 2008.