Lenders should not make it unnecessarily difficult for people looking to get on the property ladder, it has been claimed.

Helen Adams, managing director of FirstRungNow.com, said they are needed in order to get the property market moving again and should therefore not be penalised.

"We need to see the market begin to move, but if lenders make it too expensive and are profiting out of borrowing cheaply and then lending expensively, that’s not going to happen," she continued.

Only some buyers will be able to afford the high rates currently being offered by banks, Ms Adams revealed, which are namely those with large amounts of equity in their properties.

Hometrack reported on June 29th that the average property cost was £155,600 in June – the same figure as May and April and prices have fallen by 8.7 per cent in the past year.

Sellers achieved an average of 91 per cent of their asking price in June, compared to 90.3 per cent in May and 89.6 per cent in April.

Furthermore, there was a 6.4 per cent increase in the number of sales agreed in June.