It also decided against pumping any more funds into the quantitative easing programme, having halted the £200bn scheme last month.
The Monetary Policy Committee is thought to be unlikely to change interest rates in the near future, as any rise in the cost of borrowing could jeopardise the fragile economic recovery.
Research by comparison site Moneysupermarket has revealed the lengthy Bank base rate hold hasn’t had a marked effect on improving the mortgage market in the last year.
The total number of mortgage products available shrank from 3150 in March 2009 to 2716 this month and the average standard variable rate (SVR) has increased from 4.59% to 4.69%. The average two-year fixed-rate mortgage has risen from 3.76% to 3.92% over the same period.
There has been some progress in terms of loan-to-value (LTV) amounts since March 2009, with the number of lenders offering 90% LTV products increasing from 24 to 35 and the volume at 80% LTV rising from 229 to 307.
Hannah-Mercedes Skenfield, mortgage expert at Moneysupermarket, said: “The losers of the last year have been those consumers who have little equity in their property or those who have been looking to get a foot on the housing ladder, particularly first-time buyers.
“There have been some positive signs in the mortgage market over the last 12 months. We saw the number of available mortgage products fall below the 2000 mark in 2009 but we have seen a steady increase since with numbers in excess of 2700 which shows that the recovery in the market is in place, although it is a way short the height of 2007 when there was over 30,000 products.
“Lenders have benefited from a low LIBOR and after a period of inactivity they are starting to loosen their purse strings and pass on some of these benefits to consumers in terms of lower rates. Borrowers need to be wary though as some lenders have introduced products with low headline-grabbing rates only to charge high fees which make the mortgage less competitive compared to products with higher rates. There are some good deals in the market at the moment so borrowers should consider fixing before rates start to rise again.”
