Future of UK mortgages 'may lie with foreign banks'

The future of the UK's mortgage market may lie with foreign banks, an industry practitioner has attested.

According to Mark O'Sullivan, director of trading for Currencies Direct, Chinese, Israeli and Swedish banks are moving into the sector in a bid to pick up business from UK homebuyers.

The expert suggested that it may be these banks that begin offering the best mortgage deals to consumers, forcing a "complete change around".

He stated: "It might wake up the UK banks and make them more competitive than they are at the moment."

Mr O'Sullivan went on to say that the mortgage market is presently controlled by "the big four" and, as a result of the economic downturn, the number of products available to consumers has been "absolutely decimated".

He added that the banks have got homebuyers "over a barrel".

Recently, Paragon Mortgages released the results of a survey which found that 43 per cent of landlords reported being constrained by a lack of mortgage finance.