Affordable rates? They're lost on me...

This article says that first time buyers are benefitting from fairly cheap borrowing rates.

Hmm. Not from where I'm sitting. It does go on to say that a 25% deposit is needed to benefit from the best rates. That's at least 50 grand for the type of houses I'm looking for (and we're not talking mansions here).

Until mortgage companies offer similar low borrowing rates for, say, a 15% deposit, I can't see how many people are going to be able to (or will even bother to) get on the property ladder.

The banks know they are putting big mark-ups on their mortgages, and they're charging extortionate mortgage booking fees on top of that. Time that all came to an end...