At the end of December 2007, 24,094 mortgage schemes were available in the UK intermediary market. This dropped to 5,095 at the end of December 2008 - representing a massive 79% reduction in the past year.
Variable rate mortgage schemes witnessed the biggest fall (94%) with 6,628 schemes being listed at the end of 2007, dropping to 381 at the end of 2008. In comparison, at the end of December 2007, 28% of all available mortgage schemes were Variable products – a figure, which now stands at just 7%.
The year-on-year figures also reveal a big decline in the number of Fixed rate schemes, which have dropped by 73% from 11,615 to 3,196. Despite the fall in numbers, however, the data shows that Fixed rate schemes currently represent 63% of all available mortgage schemes – up from 48% in 2007.
Following the same theme, scheme numbers for Trackers have also declined - down 74% from 5,851 to 1,519. Trackers, however, now represent 30% of all products available, up from 24% in December 2007.
Mark Lofthouse, Chief Executive Officer, Mortgage Brain, comments, “These figures portray a clear and vivid picture of the decline in the number of mortgage products available to consumers through intermediaries and it’s expected that the market will continue to fluctuate due to the ongoing effects of the credit crunch within the global economy.
“It is important, however, that we not only look at recent market developments but remember that in 2002 there were less than 4,000 mortgage products available.”
