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 scheme, which has been extended once already, saved buyers paying the 1% Stamp Duty for properties valued between those two amounts. It remains to be seen whether the approaching end of the scheme will have any material impact on the present property market.

The question is will Gordon Brown extend the scheme up to the next general election as a blatant bribe to home buyers?

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.

In the last three months, prices are up 3.8% but house prices remain 13.5% lower than their peak in October 2007. The average price of a home in the UK now back to the same level as a year ago, at £161,816.

Also figures for mortgage approvals for house purchase suggest sales activity should increase in the coming months.

House prices are rising due to a combination of low supply and more positive newsfrom lenders so anyone wishing to sell in the near future it appears that now is the best time to do so

UK House Asking Prices Increased in September according to Hometrack.

The report adds to evidence that the housing market may be starting to level off after the credit squeeze ended a decade- long boom. The rises were mainly in London and the South East and partly due to the lack of property coming on the market.

It seems that greater demand and slightly easier lending conditions is helping the property market to recover.