Question to Karen Scott, mortgage adviser, Acorn Mortgages: When will mortgages become more affordable?

She said: ‘There is no quick or easy answer to this and so first we must look at why we are in this situation. A lot of the requests for higher deposits and less competitive interest rates is simply because the lenders do not want to lend in the same volumes as they have previously.

‘While we live and work in Jersey, the vast majority of what is happening is beyond our control, since all our high-street banks and lenders have UK parent companies that ultimately dictate lending policy. Confidence in the UK property market is low in the banking world, which in turn leads to low consumer confidence, generating a vicious circle of negative sentiment. Since we cannot hide from this UK influence, Jersey is also affected.

‘In short, nobody really knows the answer to this question, even the lenders. All we can say is that things will probably only improve once lenders become more confident of their own financial security. UK government intervention is intended to speed up this process by re-introducing financial security and liquidity as well as overall consumer confidence.

‘While how long all this will take is uncertain, one thing is for sure: the heady days of no deposit and very low margin mortgage products may well have been consigned to history for ever.’