Joint mortgages 'likely to remain niche product'

Joint mortgages are a niche product and unlikely to gain popularity from the recent credit crunch, it has been claimed.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) says that joint mortgages are a very small section of the market, and likely to remain so.

Joint tenancy mortgages are commonly used by married couples and partners and require each signatory to consent before the house can be sold.

With joint tenants-in-common mortgages, each person''s share can be disposed of independently.

Bernard Clarke of the CML says that while joint mortgages can seem attractive, they can be "very hard to put together" because they are "different" to other mortgages.

"You''ve got to get a group together of like-minded people, you need to be able to protect their individual shares if they''re putting in different amounts," he explained.

He added that problems can occur where someone moves out unexpectedly or cannot pay their share of the bill.

According to CML figures, gross mortgage lending for August 2007 was down by three per cent compared to the same month last year.

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