First-time buyers need to make sure that they save enough money for a deposit so that they are taken seriously in the mortgage market, one expert has advised.
Catherine Hearnden, director of MyMortgageDirect, says that the majority of home loan lenders still require a five per cent deposit and will not just hand out mortgages “on a plate”.
“If nothing is done by people themselves, they won’t expect to have put the effort in when paying their mortgage,” she states.
Ms Hearnden’s comments come in response to recent statistics from the British Bankers Association, which reveal that mortgage lending fell to a figure of 35,000 in January.
This is in comparison to the 46,000 home loans that were approved in the last month of 2010.
She believes that both the end of the stamp duty holiday and the nationwide ‘big freeze’ both contributed to this fall but adds that banks need to open up their lending criteria if the effects of this downward turn are to be alleviated.
According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, gross home loan lending fell by 32 per cent between December and January to a decade low of £9.1 billion.