Mortgage deposits up to 20%

Buyers lucky enough to secure a mortgage today will still be expected to put up a deposit of 20%, according to BBC programme tonight on the Credit Crunch.

Their choice of places to go though will be extremely limited. Before the credit crunch there were 16,000 different policies on the market. This is now under 3,000 and the choice is largely an illusion because only half a dozen banks and building societies are actually lending anything at all.