Mortgage borrowers 'need to re-adjust to saving'

Date:Monday 16th November 2009
Author: Susanna Kavka

Borrowers need to start saving again if they want to get a mortgage and not depend on being given large sums by lenders, according to MyMortgageDirect.com.

Catherine Hearnden, director at the mortgage comparison website, believes that up until recently borrowers had it very easy in terms of finding the money to buy a house.

However, she said that: "If you go back long enough, people used to have to save up a lot of money to be able to buy a house."

Ms Hearnden thinks that there will be a return to the time when people had to save before they could get on the property ladder, as "there is only so much help you can give people."

Her comments follow the news from Findaproperty.com in its monthly house prices and affordability index that the cost of property has fallen by 0.5 per cent this month, the first downturn since March.

The average deposit required fell from £58,030 to £57,400 over the same period, a decline from 1.81 times to 1.80 times of the average income.