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Latest: Mortgage deals on offer from lenders increase
Mortgage availability for homebuyers has improved over the past month, according to figures from the financial information service Moneyfacts.
An increasing number of building societies and lenders are becoming more accommodating which is in turn increasing competition – therefore a better outlook for home buyers.
At the start of March there were 1,798 mortgage deals available which required deposits of between 0% and 40%.
That was 6% more availability than a month ago and 68% more than a year ago.
There are still very few mortgages available with just 0% or 5% deposits, but there are now 489 deals that ask for 10% or 15% down-payments.
That is 90% more than a year ago when there were just 258 such loans on the market.
Among the lenders to cut the interest rates across their mortgage ranges in recent weeks have been Lloyds, RBS, Cheltenham & Gloucester, Northern Rock and Alliance & Leicester.
The cuts have been between 0.1% and 0.5%.
In another indication of more relaxed lending, RBS has raised its maximum advance for first time buyers from £150,000 to £300,000.
Despite the recent trends, the proportion of new mortgage deals that require a deposit of at least 25% is still very high - 57% compared to 65% in March 2009.
Back in August 2007, just before on the onset of the credit crunch, only 16% of the deals on offer asked for such large down payments.
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