The number of mortgage products on the market has increased over recent weeks but strict criteria are still inhibiting approvals, brokers have warned.

There are now more than 2,500 mortgage products available for the first time since May last year, according to new figures from Moneysupermarket.com.

Competition has returned to the mortgage market this month, with a number of new fixed-rate and tracker mortgages launched. Banks and building societies have also reduced rates across the board in January – with some rates falling by as much as 0.6 per cent.

Data from Moneysupermarket.com revealed that January was the third consecutive month of increases in the number of available products. However, the number of deals available is still tiny compared with the peak of the market in August 2007, when there were more than 30,000 mortgage products on offer.

“We’ve seen lenders start to offer higher loan-to-value deals again but other aspects of criteria are not getting any better yet,” said Ray Boulger of mortgage brokers John Charcol.

Brokers said low-risk borrowers are still having their mortgage applications rejected if they fall only slightly outside of the lenders’ credit scoring criteria.