Well last month there was information that lending for homeowners had increased month on month albeit by a small amount. But yesterday we got some more figures that contradicted that news. It seems that on 2008, the amount of mortgages offered was the lowest in history, falling by 47% on 2007.

Apart from the so called credit crunch it is believed their is plenty demand fro mortgages it is just the large deposits need to secure a home owner loans that is preventing many from buying especially first time buyers.
The measures put into place to encourage lending has yet to show continuous positive figures to prove it is working and with interest rates down to there lowest level ever, which is great news for borrowers, those trying to save for their deposit are getting very low interest rates in return.

There is a belief that this current trend is unsustainable and it is very possible that more people may pay their mortgage off than take up news ones. The frustrating thing for estate agents is that there are plenty of first time buyers wanting to take advantage of the drop in property prices, but cannot get on to that lender because of the higher deposits required fro security.

Waiting for Februarys stats will see if the trend will continue into 2009, or banks are at last lending more as promised.