Mortgages being pulled by lenders
Updated on 03 April 2008
Lenders are continuing to withdraw products and raise rates amid warnings that the current mortgage drought is set to worsen.
A host of lenders made changes to their product range as the mortgage market continues to alter on a daily basis.
The UK's sixth largest building society Skipton pulled its three-year fixed rate mortgage and two of its tracker products, while Salt, which is part of Derbyshire Building Society, is withdrawing its entire tracker range, although it will be launching new deals on Monday.
Meanwhile Barclays' mortgage lending arm, the Woolwich, increased its lifetime tracker rates offered through intermediaries by up to 0.4%, to give a rate of 1.69% above the Bank of England base rate for people with a 10% deposit.
Loughborough Building Society said it would no longer lend products through intermediaries, and West Bromwich Building Society pulled all of its intermediary deals with a view to relaunching them next week.
Earlier this week internet and telephone bank First Direct temporarily withdrew its entire mortgage range from new customers after receiving five times its usual level of applications, while on Wednesday the Co-operative Bank said it was pulling all of its two-year deals.
The number of different mortgage products available has dived by 12% since Monday alone, falling to 4,754.
This compares with 15,599 different deals at the beginning of July 2007 before the credit crunch first hit.
The mortgage shortage looks set to get worse during the coming months, with lenders warning they are likely to rein in their lending further, according to the Bank of England's Credit Conditions Survey published.
Banks and building societies said they had cut their secured lending during the three months to the middle of March in the face of increased economic uncertainty, particularly in relation to the housing market, and a reduced appetite for risk.
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