Mortgage market is "approaching normality"

The mortgage market is returning to normality after being too eager to lend money over the past two years, an expert has claimed.

Barney McCarthy, editor of YourMortgage.co.uk, claims that it was too easy to get a loan over the past two years but now lending criteria has tightened there will be less people who cannot afford repayments.

He advises that anyone who seeks to take out a self buildmortgage - or any other form of house loan - will find that the days of free and easy money are over but if you can afford the repayments, getting a loan should be no problem.

Mr McCarthy is optimistic and claims the situation "is not as bad as people make out" and it was merely "too good to be true" in the past few years.

Gross mortgage lending totalled an estimated £18.7 billion in October, up seven per cent from September, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).