Q. I heard the other day that the mortgage market may be easing. Is it?

A. The short answer – surprisingly enough, given all the doom and gloom in the media - is yes. Lenders are lending, and the really good news is that rates are starting to come down. What’s happening? Well, firstly, costs in the wholesale money markets have been falling. This trend is expected to be further reinforced by the Government’s brand new £80 billion Funding For Lending (FFL) plan, which aims to break the credit logjam by furnishing banks and other lenders with special cheap funding for both mortgages and small business loans. The second factor is growing competition between lenders – particularly for the more lucrative fixed rate business. With continuing uncertainties about the economic outlook, and the Bank of England base rate only likely to move in one direction from its historic low, borrowers are increasingly looking to lock themselves into longer-term fixes, in preference to tracker-type mortgages, which while marginally cheaper nevertheless still have the potential to go up. This growth in demand is fuelling what some market commentators are describing as a mortgage rate price war. All in all then, this is good news, with some great deals currently available, particularly for those borrowers in possession of a substantial deposit – say, a minimum of 30%. It’s still not quite so good for first-time buyers, of course – or indeed anyone looking for a high LTV deal. Nevertheless, although 95% mortgages remain pretty thin on the ground, they can be found, while the choice at 90% is significantly wider. It’s also worth pointing out that while high LTV mortgages may be a couple of percentage points dearer than for 60-70% deals, the actual rates are in many instances no higher than they were 4 or 5 years ago. Underpinning all this, of course, is the fact that lenders are now much more cautious and risk-averse than they were back in the gung-ho years. This manifests itself in the fact that they are asking for much more information upfront than they used to, including proof of identity and evidence of income. But when you think about it, that’s no bad thing. So there you are. As long as you meet lenders’ criteria, finding a mortgage to suit your needs is definitely getting easier – and cheaper!