There are only 60 deals available from lenders to borrowers who only have a 5% deposit, according to Moneyfacts.

That number is down from 384 at the start of April, and 860 from a year ago. Mortgages for 100% or more of a property’s value disappeared at the start of the year and the range of all mortgage deals has since shrunk.

Those deals that require only a 5% deposit from a borrower are still being offered by some of the UK’s biggest lenders, such as the Nationwide, Abbey and the Halifax, but in the current lending climate this offer is likely to disappear altogether. Thanks to the international credit crunch becoming worse by the day, and the authorities struggling to find a coherent answer, mortgage lending in the UK has slumped.

House sales are already down by more than half and mortgage approvals, a good indicator of future trends in transactions, are at a record low, down by 70% on a
year ago.

During August new mortgage lending was just 5% of the level seen the month before.