The most recent statistics from the Council of Mortgage Lenders has revealed that the gross mortgage lending was around 21% in the month of March at £11.3 billion as compared to £9.3 billion in the month of February.

“The housing market has emerged hesitantly from hibernation. Household finances are under a lot of pressure, and as a result demand for house purchase loans fell in the first three months of 2011. Lenders expect mortgage credit availability to improve this quarter, and this should help to underpin house purchase activity albeit at pretty low levels”, said the Chief Economist, Bob Pannell.

Meanwhile, a recent survey by the Yorkshire BS claims that only 7% of the borrowers consider the offset option when fixing finance which implies that approximately 10m home buyers may not be able to make the best out of their savings.

The Yorkshire BS Direct Mortgage Manager, Chris Smith said that in Yorkshire, every third mortgage application is on offset basis and it is important to find why offset sales are not a popular choice in the UK, even though they possess great financial benefits, especially in the existing market.