Leicestershire folk spoilt for mortgage choice

Home buyers in the Midlands have a wider choice of loans than elsewhere in the country. So says Moneyfacts.

The financial information provider has researched mortgage availability on a regional basis and declared that prospective borrowers are faced with a postcode lottery.

Leicestershire is the UK’s prime mortgage county because it is home to a number of smaller building societies with deals exclusively for people in the neighbourhood, some of which are restricted to specific post codes.

Northern Irish home movers and remortgagers are the most restricted in choice, with Scotland taking second place.

Moneyfacts analyst, Michelle Slade, comments that rates on some of the loans offered by small lenders are just below those offered by market leading national lenders.

She adds that a number of the smaller building societies are now offering nationally available savings products, in efforts to increase their funding.

However, competition has been returning to the mortgage market in recent weeks and marked regional differences may disappear as more lenders are happy to seek a listing in the best-buy tables.

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