Homeowners able to borrow more against their properties as choice of rates improves

Over the last few years, one of the major restrictions homeowners have faced on the amount that they can borrow has been the gradually declining ‘loan to value’ limits that many lenders have set.

Before the credit crunch, many lenders offered a wide range of deals to applicants looking to borrow 95 or even 100 per cent of the value of their home.  However, since 2008 it has been tough to agree decent mortgage or remortgage deals at anything above 75 per cent of a property’s value.

However, some recent research has provided good news for borrowers.  The number of mortgage products available to people looking to borrow a higher proportion of their homes’ value is rising, increasing the amount that many households may be able to borrow.

Choice of mortgage deals hits three year high

New research has found that the number of deals available to borrowers in 2011 has hit a three year high.  Analysis from Mortgage Brain has found that the number of mortgage deals offered by UK lenders to mortgage intermediaries is now at its highest level since May 2008.

There are now 11,996 mortgage deals available to brokers in the UK with over 200 new products being launched in May 2011 alone.

The number of tracker rate products rose in May by 5 per cent to 3,057 although the number of fixed rate products declined slightly, to 7,695.  There were 1,244 variable deals available in the market.

Over the last six months there has been a sharp rise in the choice of mortgage products available as banks and building societies rediscover their appetite for mortgage lending.  Mortgage Brain’s research found that there are over four thousand more mortgage and remortgage deals available today than there were just six months ago.

Number of high loan to value mortgage deals increasing

For homeowners looking to maximise the borrowing on their home there has also been a sharp increase in mortgage deals at a high ‘loan to value’.  Mortgage Brain found that there are now a third more mortgages available to applicants wanting to borrow 80 per cent or above.

Mark Lofthouse, chief executive officer at Mortgage Brain, says: “Reaching a three-year high in terms of overall product availability is a significant milestone and shows, once again that the UK mortgage market is continuing to move in the right direction for the benefit of intermediaries and borrowers.”

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