Niche mortgages, which include environmentally-friendly deals, are proving particularly popular, as lenders try to meet the developing demands of the British public.
But one finance expert has revealed that even with the increasing number of options available to consumers, they still prefer to speak to someone face to face or on the phone ahead of buying online.
Sally Lauder from Alliance and Leicester, the UK's seventh largest bank, suggested that people were using the internet more and more to research mortgage deals but abandoning online applications in favour of more traditional methods.
She said: "What we've found is that before people make that final commitment to applying for a mortgage, they generally want to speak to someone or sit down face to face with someone.
"We find generally first-time buyers will want to sit down with someone because it's the biggest financial commitment they make of their lives, it's very new.
"They probably won't understand mortgages and the different options open to them. They will want to sit down with a professional advisor, be that in a high street branch or with a mortgage broker."
Lauder revealed that even though more experienced borrowers used the internet for the majority of their research, they still tended to prefer discussing the finer detail face to face with an advisor.
"We don't currently offer mortgage applications online and the reason we don't is we just haven't seen the demand for it," she added.
"We're constantly reviewing things and it's not to say we won't look at it again the future, but we're finding that if people aren't making the application online, let's concentrate on our call centres, on our branches and having good relationships with our mortgage brokers."
Although Alliance and Leicester doesn't feel the market is there yet, UK online mortgage firm Giraffe has recently extended its operations to Northern Ireland.
Giraffe has been successfully selling mortgages for the last 12 months in Britain and claims it has consistently featured in the Best Rate tables in that time.
The company offers a range of mortgages including those for first-time buyers, purchasers and remortgagers, as well as buy-to-let and self certification rates.
It insists its clients are "financially sophisticated" and "able to make informed decisions about the products they buy without taking advice".
Customers are expected to be informed enough to be able to make the right choices, particularly because they don't have the time to deal with someone face to face.
Alison Pallett, head of consumer lending at the Bank of Ireland, said: "We are very excited about launching Giraffe in Northern Ireland. Giraffe is all about meeting certain customer's needs and making their mortgage selection as simple as possible.
"There are a growing number of people who are capable of making their own choice, without the need for advice. Giraffe has been designed to meet the needs of these people".
Giraffe's website offers up to date prices on property and customer case studies and a new service to allow online customer trading is in the pipeline.
The minimum loan size offered by the company is £15,001 for purchases, £25,001 for remortgages and the maximum loan is £1 million.
It seems that customer choice appears to be the main driving force behind the mortgage market.
Lauder insists that the UK is the most competitive mortgage market in the world.
She revealed that there was a demographic pattern in mortgage uptake, suggesting first-time buyers often tended to opt for fixed rate mortgages, while people who had experienced financial difficulties chose sub-prime and near-prime plans.
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