Conditions within the mortgage sector have changed dramatically since the onset of the global credit crunch, with popular mortgages such as 100 percent mortgages and even 95 percent mortgages disappearing from the shelves and being replaced with high deposit mortgages.

The changes have taken place as lenders are reducing the risks to themselves given the turbulent market, and the choice of affordable mortgages for consumers has gone through the floor despite the base interest rate being at an all time low of just 0.5 percent for the past eight months.

One of the mortgages that has suffered more recently is the self certification mortgage, which was popular amongst those that could not prove their income.

These mortgages posed a higher than average risk to the lender because the applicant could not prove their income, and with lenders cutting back on risks these mortgages have quickly been disappearing from the market.

Last month saw the UK’s financial regulator, the Financial Services Authority, publish a report on major reforms for the mortgage market, and self certification mortgages were addressed as part of this overhaul.

Since that report one lender, Platform, has withdrawn from the self certification mortgage market taking with it the last of the self certification mortgages available.

Self certification mortgages are to be banned under the new regulations that have been put forward by the FSA. Platform was the last remaining mortgage lender to offer these mortgages, and following its withdrawal from this sector will leave many people who are unable to prove their income struggling when it comes to getting onto the property ladder or moving home.

In the meantime the FSA continued to put together measures that will reduce the risk of borrowers being lumbered with loans that they cannot afford to make repayments on.

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