The number of mortgage products that are available on the housing market has fallen during November by the largest amount since the summer of last year, according to the latest figures.
These figures were provided by Moneyfacts and they show a monthly drop of 3.7%. That means there are currently 6,402 products available. It marks the largest month-on-month drop in product numbers that the market has seen since July of last year. Moneyfacts has stated that it could be an example of lenders choosing to be cautious during a period when things are uncertain, in the wake of the recent budget.
What the figures also reveal is that November has brought a drop in the shelf-life of products, on average. During October this was 21 days, but it has now fallen to 17 days.
It is important to put the data for this month in context, however. Despite the month-on-month drop, there are still far more mortgage products available than there were two years ago. November of 2022 saw just 3,117 products on the market in the aftermath of the mini-budget earlier that year.
The situation when it comes to rates is a mixed one, with rises in five-year fixed rates and drops in two-year ones. The former have gone up by 2bps in November, on average. The latter have fallen by 1bp. It should be noted that two-year fixed rates are typically higher to start with, in the majority of cases.
Mortgage advisors who have done CeMAP courses will be hoping that product numbers start to rise again before too long.
