79% fall in number of mortgage products available

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by Lin Freestone

Mortgage Brain, a sourcing service providing mortgage product information, has revealed that there has been a 79% fall in the number of mortgage products available over the past year.

At the end of December 2008 there were 5,095 fewer mortgage schemes available in the UK intermediary market than there had been at the end of 2007.

According to Mortgage Brain, it is expected that the market will continue to fluctuate due to the ongoing effects of the credit crunch within the global economy. Only 7% of all mortgages on Mortgage Brain were variable at the end of 2008, with a choice of 381 available.

Trackers have fallen by 74% over the year to 1,519 products available to UK consumers, and there are now only 3,196 fixed-rate mortgages rates, a drop of 73% from the same point in 2007.

However, Mark Lofthouse, the chief executive of Mortgage Brain points out that there were less than 4,000 mortgage products available in 2002 and it is important to remember this and not only look at recent market developments.