Mortgage postcode lottery

Michelle says:

"Borrowers in the Midlands have wider access to a higher number of mortgage products than anyone else in the UK, with those living in the Leicestershire having the widest choice.

"In this region there is a higher concentration of smaller building societies which offer selected products only to borrowers living in nearby counties and/or selected postcodes in that region.

"Borrowers looking for a mortgage in Northern Ireland have the most restricted choice, followed by those living in Scotland.

"Competition is now slowly starting to return to the mortgage market and lenders are no longer actively trying to avoid being top of the best buy tables.

"However, although there are now increasingly more products on the market, the number of people being accepted continues to decline.

"Many of the products on offer from these smaller societies are just below the market leading national deals, but the society will no doubt be au fait with unique regional risks to specific lending, even more so if a customer has banked with them for a number of years.

"By contrast, a number of the smaller building societies are moving to offering nationally available savings products in an apparent move to get more funding through the door. Darlington BS, Progressive BS and Marsden BS have all recently launched products without residing area restrictions.

"These providers only write very small amounts of mortgage business and the increased finance from offering national competitive savings products should help fund the business that they do write.

"Just like with many other things these days, it appears that personal finance is not immune from the so called "postcode lottery". Anyone looking for a new mortgage deal or savings account should make sure they shop around in order to get the best deal available to them."