More mortgage holders 'are being affected by the credit crunch'
Published On 28 March 2008
Banks are now more cautious about lending money to people with good credit histories, an industry expert has said.Louise Cuming, head of mortgage services at moneysupermarket.com, explained that the credit crunch was now having a significant impact on the mortgage market in the UK.
She pointed to recent findings which showed a 60 per cent reduction in the number of mortgage deals available compared to last year.
Ms Cuming explained that this meant that everyone was now starting to feel the effects of the tighter market.
"All lenders are taking a much more pessimistic approach to their attitude to risk. They're stepping away from the deals that they would consider riskier," she added.
"Initially it was really just affecting people with bad credit history but now, more and more, it's also hitting people who either haven't got a lot of equity in their properties or they haven't got a big deposit.
"What we then see is because of less choice simple economics means … more expensive prices. We've also seen, at the same time as the lack of availability of products, the products that are available are being priced at a premium rate so costs are going up."
