Banks ‘had eased home loan terms’

Lenders reported seeing a “significant” increase in the availability of mortgages to people with deposits of less than 25 per cent in the three months to September, although willingness to lend to people with deposits below 10 per cent had been “little changed”.

They told the Bank’s latest credit conditions survey that they expect to become more willing to hand out deals to people with deposits below 10 per cent in the next few months.

Demand for mortgages is expected to rise further in the last three months of the year amid signs that consumers are feeling more confident about the economy as house prices pick up, the report found.

The findings were published in the same week that the new phase of the Government’s flagship Help to Buy scheme, which sees major lenders offering state-backed mortgages to people with deposits as low as 5 per cent, got under way.

The scheme has sparked fears of a house price bubble at a time when the volume of homes for sale is in relatively short supply.

The survey of lenders was carried out between August and early September, before the Government announced it was bringing forward the launch of Help to Buy from January.