Press & PR

People looking to get on to the property market should not automatically go to the big providers for a mortgage, it has been suggested.

According to moneysupermarket.com, those wishing to save money on their mortgages should look to stay away from the bigger lenders, who often set higher premiums to recoup losses in worsening financial markets.

Louise Cuming, head of mortgages at the online comparison site, suggests that smaller building societies may be able to offer better deals due to their decreased exposure to fluctuations in the marketplace.

Due to tighter regulations on the way that building societies can lend money, Ms Cuming notes, many are now in a less precarious situation than bigger banks with larger debt balances and are able to pass on this to consumers in terms of lower rates.

However, she added that smaller players can only compete for so long because there is only a limited amount of money that they can lend.

"At some stage some of them will just have to pull up the drawbridge and say: "We've lent all the money we can for this year and that's it," she notes.

Research carried out by Moneyfacts.co.uk has found that of the 250 best mortgages available, only 27 per cent are offered by the top mortgage lenders.

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