New research reveals that building societies consistently offered borrowers the best value mortgages over the last year, occupying all of the top 10 places for lenders.

According to online mortgage company mform.co.uk, Furness Building Society was the most competitive lender during 2007, with Skipton and Britannia following in second and third place respectively.

The highest placed bank in the study was Giraffe, which is owned by Bank Of Ireland, which occupied 11th spot.

Abbey emerged as the highest placed group out of the major mortgage lenders, in 17th place, with Nationwide at 20th. However, the UK's biggest mortgage lender Halifax could only manage to reach 36th.

Mform.co.uk's study ranked best buy products across all categories based on the true cost of a mortgage, including all fees.

Every time a lender featured in the top 10 of a best buy table, they were awarded a point, with those that had accrued the most points at the end of the year deemed to offer the best value.

In a separate study, HSBC came top of financial information group Defaqto's annual survey of the cheapest mortgage lender for existing borrowers on standard variable rates.

According to the group, HSBC offered the cheapest standard variable mortgage, saying someone who had a £50,000 home loan with the bank would have paid a total of £3,361.99 in interest during the year, which was £532.39 less than the most expensive standard variable deal available.

Building societies Skipton and Nationwide came in second and third place, with total interest costs of £3,435.07 and £3,485.07 respectively.

Overall, the top 10 was made up of five banks and five building societies.

David Black, principal consultant of banking at Defaqto, said: "In 2007 there were three increases in bank base rates and one decrease so it is not surprising that the average cost of servicing a standard variable rate mortgage for the largest lenders rose last year by 14% over the cost in 2006.

"While it is acknowledged that standard variable rate mortgages are only one type of mortgage, their importance may be increasing due to the knock-on effects of the credit crunch, making it more difficult to obtain attractive alternative deals."

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