Having reported so many positive signs of housing market recovery in our recent mortgage articles, it seems the glimmers of hope may have been a little premature.
Experts had warned that the ‘green shoots’ may have been only a blip and unfortunately, the figures for April that have been released to date seem to back this up.
Despite reassurances from the Bank of England and the intervention of the Government, the number of mortgage products requiring a 40 per cent deposit has increased. It is good to see that the total number of mortgage products has increased overall by 8 per cent, although this is still far less than the number available in the same month last year.
On the positive side, there are new incentives on offer for first time buyers as we discussed in an earlier article and more products offering mortgages to first time buyers and those with just a 10 per cent deposit, however, the increase is only small and comes from a limited number of mortgage lenders.
Mortgage lenders are still being incredibly cautious when it comes to lending. As such, it is still too early to say whether the first small positive signs are enough to know for fact that the mortgage market is stabilising, but so long as it keeps heading in the right direction, however slowly, then it is bouncing back; it just may take more time than at first thought.
