LTVs `preventing people from getting mortgages`

29 January 2009

First-time buyers are being prevented from entering the property market and securing a mortgage due to the loan-to-values (LTV) being demanded by banks.

This is according to Hayley Martin, team leader at Click n go Mortgages, who said that mortgage providers are not offering anything over 90 per cent for purchase or remortgage.

She added that, even for these products, the rates are around seven or eight per cent, which is "still quite high".

Ms Martin went on to say: "It`s only if you`ve got a really large deposit or a lot of equity in your home that you can take advantage of the low rates."

The expert suggested that ordinary properties on the market are going for around £150,000, which means that buyers have to stump up deposits of approximately £15,000, adding that first-time buyers "just haven`t got it".

Meanwhile, figures produced by the Council of Mortgage Lenders suggest that there were 11.69 million outstanding mortgages in the UK in the third quarter of 2008.

Tags: LTV, mortgage, remortgage

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