In the new Equifax research, 36.8% of those who had applied for a mortgage indicated that they had found it difficult to get a competitive deal.
Whilst this is still a relatively high number, this is almost a 10% drop in the number of applicants who were having difficulty getting access to good credit deals in 2009.
The research comes as the Bank of England reported a 42% increase in mortgage holders who switched provider in November 2010, compared to the same month in 2009.
In 2009, 45% of mortgage applicants who responded to the Equifax survey said they found it difficult to get a new competitively priced deal. This compared to 23% in 2008. In 2010 the number who said they have found it difficult to get a good deal on first application dropped to 36.8%.
Commenting, Neil Munroe, external affairs director, Equifax, believes this small drop from 2009 suggests that the mortgage market is starting to respond to calls to lend more.
For those who did have difficulty getting a competitive deal, 1 in 5 believed it was because they had previously defaulted on a loan, whilst over a third (35%) thought a key barrier was the amount of money they had for the deposit.
“The size of the deposit required for a new mortgage certainly still seems to be a key factor in getting a good deal at the moment” explained Munroe. “But there also appears to be a heightened awareness of the importance of the data on an individual’s credit file.
“As of October 2010 we saw a 129% increase in consumers accessing our £2 statutory credit report over the previous 12 months. More people appear to be aware of the importance of reviewing their credit file before making new applications for credit and I feel sure that this has contributed to more people being able to get the best mortgage deal on first application.”
