But, there are strings attached.

The range is only available direct through Nationwide’s branches for existing customers moving home and first-time buyers.

Customers have to use the bank's FlexAccount as their main bank account and are required to deposit at least £750 a month to qualify for the deals.

New FlexAccount customers have to use Nationwide’s account transfer service to qualify.

Abbey for Intermediaries considers that this is a perfect way of rewarding Abbey customers' loyalty while giving their brokers access to a market leading product.

The rates have been cut by up to 0.5% & is the fourth rate reduction in 2 months.

The two year & three year fixed rate deals are available for 70% LTV & 80% LTV. A new buy-to-let lifetime tracker mortgage with 60% LTV is also being released.

All the mortgages are available direct or through intermediaries.

Woolwich is competing strongly in the mortgage market which is good news for buyers looking to get on the property market or owners looking to move home.

The range features a 2 year fixed rate at 5.69% for purchases and 5.7% for remortgages both upto 80% LTV. There is also a 5 year fixed rate of 6.39% for purchases and 6.49% for remortgages.

Added incentives are free basic valuation and free standard legal fees.

The Council of mortgage Lenders (CML) said, "The number of mortgages granted rose to 52,700, 29 percent more than in August 2008."

It’s a sign the property market is stabilizing and today’s report adds to evidence that Britain is emerging from its worst recession in a generation.

The number of people remortgaging their homes declined, the CML said. Remortgage loans fell to 32,000 in August, down 57 percent from a year earlier and 22 percent from July.

The Bank of England held rates at 0.5% and to continue with its £175bn quantitative easing programme.

Optimistically, Roger Bootle of Capital Economics predicted that rates would stay at this level for 5 years.

The house buyers preferred choice at the moment is for tracker mortgages anticipating that rates will stay low for some time.

The no change decision is good for the fragile recovery of the housing market.

House purchase loans outnumbered remortgage loans by 9 to 1 reported Spicerhaart Financial Services.

The upward trend of house purchase loans is an extremely encouraging sign that the property market is beginning to pick up.

Abbey has launched a mortgage range offering free valuation and free legal costs exclusively through mortgage brokers.

The Home Buyer Plus range has a two-year tracker at 3.29% & 75% LTV, two-year fixed at 3.99% & 70% LTV and three-year fixed at 5.99% & 85% LTV.

Woolwich has announced a one-year tracker mortgage at 1.98% up to 60% LTV, available from brokers or direct. After one year it tracks Barclays Base Rate +2.49%.

There are also two- and three-year fixed rate mortgages available for both new and existing Woolwich customers.

Announcements like these from the Woolwich and other lenders do suggest that the mortgage market may be easing and lenders are keen to attract quality borrowers.

Interesting data released by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) shows that lenders have pledged £38bn in new mortgage lending.

This is £10bn more than was pledged this time last year. Lending for house purchase now accounts for more new lending than remortgages for the first time since late 2007, the FSA says.

In Quarter 2, House purchase lending represented over half of new advances at 51%, and 55% of new lending commitments with Fixed-rate deals accounting for 65% of new lending volumes.

Hoever, the data also shows how steep the fall has been in high LTV lending with the proportion of new lending at over 90% LTV has fallen from its 2007 peak of 15%, to 6% in late 2008 and just under 3% in Quarter 2.

Overall there is optimism that these new commitments suggest the market has stopped falling and may now be picking up, helped by lower interest rates and improved confidence amongst borrowers