The number of UK mortgage loans rose 4% in one month, up to 6009 from 5803 in May 2010, which is the third consecutive monthly increase, according to the Mortgage Brain statistics.
Fixed rates continue to dominate the product market up 4% in the past month to 3764 of the products available. Variable rate products climbed for the seventh month in a row during June to 488 products, a rise of 15% from 426 at the end of May 2010.
Trackers dropped slightly during June to 1757 of all available products.
Mark Lofthouse, chief executive of Mortgage Brain, said: “This time last year, the overall number of products available to intermediaries hit an all time low of 2413. So to see them increase by nearly 150% to break the 6000 mark is a great indication of the progress that has been made in the UK mortgage market over the past 12 months.”
Fixed rate mortgage numbers have risen 33% with 36% more tracker mortgages also available against three years ago, financial research company Defaqto said. However, the number of discount mortgages fell 72%.
David Black, banking specialist at Defaqto said: “There are significant differences in the Standard Variable Rates (SVR) being charged by lenders and given that discounted mortgages tend to be linked to the SVR this is a key reason for their decline in popularity.”
He added: “Lenders with competitive SVRs have little incentive to offer discounted mortgages because profit margins on their fixed and base rate tracker mortgages are better.”
The average SVR in the UK is 4.77%, however, the highest offered by a mainstream lender is 6.08%.
