Over 1,600 new mortgage products since start of year

Despite lenders being more reluctant than ever to lend, intermediaries at least have the comfort of knowing there is a greater choice of more mortgage schemes.

The number of ‘live’ mortgage schemes available to UK mortgage intermediaries is well on its way to the 10,000 mark, according to Mortgage Brain’s latest Monthly Product Analysis.

Over 1,600 products were introduced during January, indicating a 21% increase in product availability to bring the total number of live mortgage schemes listed on its sourcing system to 9,744.

The analysis shows that there are 5,287 more products available to mortgage intermediaries than there was this time 12 months ago.

Trackers lay claim to the largest growth of new products introduced last month, with a 45% increase (820 new products) during January, bringing the total number of trackers to 2,652.

Fixed rate products rose by 17% in January and continue to represent the vast majority of product availability with current figures listing 5,982 of all available products.

Little movement was seen during January for variable rate products, however, which saw 11 products being withdrawn from the market (a 1% decline), with current figures now representing 1,110 of all available products.