The mortgage arm of Barclays reported that homeowners were spending £157 of every £1000 of their take-home pay on their mortgage each month in December 2009, down from £196 in December 2008.

Andy Gray, head of mortgages at Barclays, said: “For the 11 million UK households who have a mortgage, there is a silver lining to the recession – a substantial reduction in mortgage payments right when they need it most. For them, it is a chance to save in a way that they might not have been able to before, or to overpay their mortgage and cut years from its life.”

There was also good news for first-time buyers and those with little equity in their properties last week, with Moneysupermarket reporting an increase in products with a higher LTVs.

Deals with an 85% LTV have seen a 22% increase in availability on December 2009, and borrowers with a 10% deposit have 11% more deals to choose from.

Hannah-Mercedes Skenfield, mortgages channel manager at Moneysupermarket, said: “Lenders have started 2010 by being more open to mortgage lending than they have for some time. The increase in products available at 85% and 90% LTV is particularly encouraging for firsttime buyers, as scraping together a large deposit is not easy, and was the reason many prospective first-time buyers deserted the market last year.”

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