7
Sep
Cost of mortgages continues to fall.....
The cost of mortgages is continuing to fall and they are
becoming more accessible to some borrowers, according to figures
from Moneyfacts.
Data from September shows that the number of home loans available
with a 20% deposit has risen, but availability has dropped for
those offering 40%.
This is a shift in the trend seen in recent months which has seen
the best rates offered to those able to pay the largest
deposits.
However, take-up of loans remains slow.
Moneyfacts, a financial information service, said that the number
of mortgages available to people offering a deposit of 10% or less
remained small.
This has ruled some potential first-time buyers out of entering the
property market and is very different to the situation seen during
the housing boom earlier in the decade.
However, for those able to raise a deposit of 20%, the choice rose
sharply to 352 mortgage products in September, compared with 326 in
the previous month and 166 at the start of the year.
In contrast, the number of mortgage products on the market for
those with a 40% deposit stood at 234 in September. This was the
lowest number since the start of 2009.
"When banks increase the level that they are willing to lend
against the value of a property, this usually means that risk
increases and rates go up," said Darren Cook of Moneyfacts.
"But we are seeing average mortgage rates continue with their slow
decline and this could indicate that lenders are getting to grips
with the threats of a new mortgage environment.
"Unfortunately this is still not filtering through to increase the
number of mortgages approved and the market remains
stagnant."
The latest figures from the Bank of England showed that show that
the number of mortgages approved for UK home buyers was barely
changed in July at 48,722.
Net mortgage lending rose by only £86m in July, one of the
lowest monthly increases on record.