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There are currently only a tenth of the number of different mortgages available to borrowers compared with before the start of the credit crunch, figures show.
Research has revealed there were as many as 15,599 home loans available across the market in 2007. This number has since been slashed to a mere 1,542.
People looking to borrow a large proportion of their home's value are particularly out of luck, with the number of different deals available for people with just a 5% deposit diving from 1,079 in July 2007 to just three now.
Those with a 10% deposit also face limited choices, as there are only 113 different mortgages available at the moment for consumers who want to borrow 90% of their home's value.
Most lenders are actually demanding deposits of at least 40% in order for homeowners to benefit from their best rates.
A move by many banks and building societies to withdraw tracker products in the run up to last week's last week's interest rate cut has fuelled the slide.
But those with impaired credit histories or so-called self-certification borrowers, such as the self-employed, also face a massive drop in the number of products availability.
Lenders offering mortgages to people with poor credit histories have previously offered a broad portfolio of loans to cover a wide range of circumstances, but fears over the type of toxic debt that led to the credit crunch means choice has been significantly reduced.
There are now no variable-rate self-certification deals available, while the maximum loan to value ratios lenders will advance on fixed-rate products is 75%.
Among the 46 fixed-rate products still available in this sector, the majority charge rates of at least 5%, while in some cases interest can be as high as 10%.
Meanwhile, lenders continued to sit on their hands following the recent reduction in the Bank of England base rate to 1%.
So far, only a handful of lenders, including Lloyds TSB, Halifax, Nationwide and the Woolwich have agreed to pass on the 0.5% cut in full to their standard variable rate customers, while Royal Bank of Scotland, which includes NatWest, is reducing its SVR by 0.19%.
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