Foreign banks

According to Mark O'Sullivan, director of trading for Currencies Direct, Chinese, Israeli and Swedish are moving into the market hoping to pick up business from UK buyers.

He said that it may be the case that such lenders begin offering consumers the best deals and thus precipitate a "complete change around" in the sector.

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

He went on to suggest that the UK's mortgage market is presently controlled by "the big four" and, as a result of the recession, the number of products available to consumers has been "absolutely decimated".

Indeed, research conducted recently by Paragon Mortgages suggested that 43 per cent of landlords polled reported being constrained by a lack of mortgage finance.