Customers 'need more help with mortgages'

Date:Monday 16th March 2009
Author: Max Freedman

Consumers in the UK need greater assistance with mortgages if the market is to recover, an expert has said.

Commenting on the issue, Robert Sinclair, director of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI), said that the government must reinvent mortgage indemnity guarantees with an emphasis on consumer benefit.

This, he claimed, would allow lenders to increase their capacity to provide loans and would therefore extend the availability of mortgages to consumers such as first-time buyers.

He stated: "In April's Budget, it is crucial that the government considers both supply and demand side stimulus in order to re-energise the mortgage market."

Earlier this month, Steve Turner, head of communications at the Home Builders Federation, said that banks should be encouraged to lend more money to consumers in the form of mortgages.

Doing so would make it easier for people to secure home loans and would therefore improve the health of the UK's property market, he suggested.