Countrywide’s average interest rates were down 0.2% on April 2010 and 0.96% down on May last year, when average rates were 5.33%.
Countrywide’s figures, based on the activities of more than 700 mortgage consultants, showed that applications so far this year have increased by 4% on the same period in 2009. However, application numbers are down 8% in May compared to April.
Nevertheless, the number of new mortgage products available has increased 172% on May 2009 and were up 8.8% in May 2010 compared to April.
Countrywide said fixed rate mortgages made up 65% of all new applications in May, an increase of 5% from April 10, while buy-to-let and remortgage applications also rose by 3% and 4% respectively.
In addition, tracker mortgages made up 35% of all mortgage applications in May 2010 compared to just 3% in May 2009. This was down from the high of 47% in December 2009.
Countrywide offices also reported that the number of properties coming to market rose 34% in the same month that Home Information Packs were suspended.
Grenville Turner, chief executive of the Countrywide Group, said: “The next few months will be telling. Recent activity levels clearly demonstrate that we are some way off from seeing application volumes reach pre recession levels, but they are slowly recovering in line with the housing market.
“There is a better dynamic in the market with more applications converting to actual mortgages. It has also been encouraging to see some lenders slowly continue to reduce interest rates and this can only help the growing number of homeowners entering the market after the suspension of HIPs.
“However, the rising popularity of fixed rate products highlights that consumer confidence is fragile ahead of the Government’s emergency Budget, which looks set to reveal further spending cuts.”
