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The situation regarding mortgages, secured loans and remortgages deteriorated over the recession. Before the credit crunch these three home loans were very buoyant with many willing borrowers, and lenders only too ready to lend.

Sometimes the lenders were perhaps too anxious to lend, and the borrowers somewhat too ready to borrow.

There was very lax underwriting for all sorts of loans, both in the commercial and private sectors, and many were granted loans, mortgages and remortgages that many would never be able to repay.

There was particularly reckless lending in the buy to let and property development sectors, and some verging on being no better than spivs, were advanced huge sums of money and often based on a self declaration of income.

Self declarations, or self certs as they were known, meant that a self employed applicant for secured loans, mortgages and remortgages could simply write or state their own net profit on a bill head, without providing any official proof that the earnings stated were in fact genuine.

This lead to many obtaining commercial loans as well as remortgages, mortgages and secured loans that were far too expensive for them.

It also lead to lenders facing the prospect of serious arrears.

This helped cause the recession, and as a result lending criteria went from one extreme to the other with underwriting being tightened up to such an extent that many who could afford to pay a secured loan, etc., that they needed were no longer eligible.

Mortgages, which are the loan needed to buy a home, declined and the sale of houses, in particular new built properties fell, and builders were left with vast numbers of unsold homes, as new estates stood like ghost towns.

The lack of confidence in employment security made people unwilling to move house, and this further caused the decline in mortgage applications.

With the drop in property prices, many homeowners were no longer able to obtain secured loans or remortgages, as these also depend on the equity available on a property, with equity being the difference between the value of the property and the mortgage balance.

Secured loans which are also called homeowner loans are secured on the asset of a property, and in the past homeowners had sufficient equity to take out a secured loan which they could use as a low interest method of buying such things as a caravan or a car, paying for home improvements or even for debt consolidation.

The same thing happened to remortgages which homeowners applied for at the end of their current mortgage deal.

A remortgage involves moving a mortgage to a new provider, and before the recession, if the person had been at his address for a number of years he would have sufficient equity to obtain a low rate, as good equity is required for a low interest rate.

Now things are stabilising, and in fact looking on the up, with the rise in property values and the low rates available.

Also self certs are back to some extent with the reintroduction of self employed loans on a self cert basis at 60% LTV