Depositing pain

The decision by Lloyds TSB to stop offering mortgages to anyone who has a deposit of less the 10% opens up what could be a striking divergence in fortunes. 

Those with enough equity will not really notice the impact of the credit crunch. First Direct, for example, was recently offering a 4.75% fix to those with more than 25% equity. It is to the poorer that loan rates will shoot skywards. 

So Middle England may not notice the crunch, or any slide in its property prices. The pain will be felt, and repossessions visited, on those without a parental nest egg to deposit. And this pain may well not be picked up in national trends.