Number of mortgage products down by 'nearly 90%'

Since April of last year, the number of mortgage products on offer for borrowers has been cut by 86 per cent, according to moneysupermarket.com.

Louise Cuming, head of mortgages at the price comparison site, said that in the last week alone over 1,000 products have been pulled by lenders, further reducing options for borrowers.

Commenting on the number of mortgage products withdrawn, Ms Cuming said: "Last week was a grim one in the mortgage market with the number of deals available falling 23 per cent (in a week) from 4,930 to just 3,785."

The expert added that most of the products that have been scrapped are subprime, highlighting the "disappearing options" for these borrowers.

However, an increasing number of people are taking out self build mortgages and trying to book a healthy profit, as the homes are worth on average of between 25 per cent and 35 per cent more on completion than they cost to build, according to thisismoney.co.uk.