Consumers looking to purchase a Bristol property may benefit from less stringent mortgage lending criteria this year.
This is according to Andy Pratt, chief operating officer at Alexander Hall, who predicted that banks and building societies may well increase the number of high loan-to-value mortgages they provide over the course of 2010.
Also, it is unlikely that mortgage lenders will increase their margins over this period, meaning there will still be good deals around, he suggested.
Mr Pratt remarked: "[Banks] are now realising that there is a competitive world and there are some good buyers out there at 90 per cent loan-to-value and potentially higher."
The expert pointed out that mortgage providers base their decisions concerning how much to lend homeowners on what they think will happen to the value of property.
His comments follow the release of Bank of England figures, which showed that there were a total of 60,518 new mortgage approvals in November 2009, compared with 57,718 in October.
