Despite the doom and gloom of the past year and the resultant difficulty of obtaining mortgage loans, life goes on and people will always need finance to help them buy houses.

The traditional ways of borrowing have changed over the years and lending did become imprudent and too easy. This strategy has come to bite the lenders hard and so we are entering a new, harder world of lending.

Whereas it was possible to get 100% mortgages with several lenders even stretching this to 125% for new borrowers, nowadays it is very difficult to obtain more than a 90% loan. Some lenders will not even advance more than 60% on a remortgage. This means that first time buyers, in particular, are struggling to gather together the necessary deposit for their purchase.

Furthermore, lenders have strengthened their criteria when it comes to credit rating their potential borrowers. For a list of lenders and their facilities read here for more information.

Rather than going door to door and from lender to lender to find a loan, borrowers should seek out a specialist firm of brokers who will know the lenders and what they will need to satisfy their criteria. This will save the client a lot of time and potential despair and more efficiently get their proposals in the right lenders hands as quickly as possible. It will also save endless credit checks which, in turn, have a deleterious effect on their credit rating.

The good news is that lenders have to lend to maintain their business and so the market place will eventually balance itself. Changes will have to be made such as more flexible, even endless, family type mortgages which pass on through the generations to keep business flowing.