We reported last week that the latest figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) have revealed that the number of home owner loan applications had dropped in January by a staggering 32 per cent in just one month alone.

Whilst the amount of new loans had fallen to the lowest point in almost ten years in January, there was a significant increase in the number of new products which became available on the home owner loan and mortgage market.

The number of available home owner loan products actually increased by 402 over the course of the last month, with many of the new loan products offering relatively cheap rates or an increase in the maximum loan to value available to potential borrowers.

The number of home owner loan product which offer a maximum loan to value of 90 per cent has gone up to 157 by the end of January, up from 114 at the beginning of the year, an increase of 37.72 per cent.

Similarly the number of 85 per cent loan to value products has risen to 334, from a figure of just 260 at the start of the year. Some lenders are even starting to return to 95 per cent loan to value products, with two such loan products entering the market.

At the same time as an increase in the number of high loan to value products, the cost of many fixed and tracker rate loans has reduced for those individuals who only require a relatively low loan to value ratio.

Darren Cook at Moneyfacts.co.uk said “Mortgage lending is down and prospects for the future mortgage market looks uncertain, but we can positively say that mortgage rates are heading in the right direction. New mortgage rates are steadily reducing and there is a modest return of competition, buy an appetite to lend looks to continue to be missing from the equation at the moment.”