It also decided against extending 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.
Ray Boulger, senior technical manager of John Charcol, said: “Following the publication of last month’s Quarterly Inflation Report, there was little doubt that Bank base rate would remain on hold this month. Availability of home loans above 75% LTV has continued to improve and this has prompted more competition and a subsequent beneficial effect on pricing.”
Boulger added that borrowers should be wary of the coming General Election and its possible effect on the market.
Research by comparison site Moneysupermarket has revealed that the lengthy base rate hold has had little effect on 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 LTV amounts since March 2009, with the number of lenders offering 90% LTV products increasing from 24 to 35.
Hannah-Mercedes Skenfield, mortgage expert at Moneysupermarket, said: “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 short the height of 2007 when there was over 30,000 products.”
