Mortgage lending for 2010 dropped for both remortgages and first time home buyers. Recent data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders showed that in 2010 there were 313,200 remortgages, worth £39.3 billion which is a drop of 23 per cent by volume and 24 per cent by value from 2009. Overall in 2010 there were 529,300 loans for mortgage purchases, totaling £77.1 billion, an increase of 3% by volume and 11% by value compared with 2009.

Remortgages accounted for 29 per cent of the 2010 mortgage loans which is 7 per cent lower than in 2009. House purchasing accounted for 57 per cent of all mortgage activity and this was an increase of 9 per cent from 2009 figures.

There were 14,500 loans worth £1.7 billion advanced to first time buyers in December 2010. This was down 42 per cent in volume and 41 per cent in value when compared to December 2009. Deposits for December 2010 averaged 23 per cent and this was 2 per cent higher than in the previous month of November. As a whole for 2010 first time buyers took out 194,600 loans, worth a value of £23.3 billion and this was a 1 per cent decrease in volume and a 6 per cent increase in value from 2009.

Michael Coogan, Director General of the CML, commented: "2010 was about the mortgage market continuing to adapt to the post-credit crunch environment, and the full year data shows that the lending industry is now on a more stable footing but at historically low levels of activity. House purchase lending held up, and shows the market is open for business. However, it is still not serving all customer groups that may want to borrow, in particular those without a significant deposit.

"Access to funding for lenders is expected to stay under pressure this year, but it will now be matched by lower consumer demand due to the economic backdrop and a range of uncertainties which will impact the timing of borrowing decisions. We conclude that this will lead to gross lending levels in 2011 staying flat compared to 2010, with downside risks."