A growing number of people desperate for credit are ringing a Kent building society as the big mainstream lenders turn more people away.

The Abbey has become the latest mainstream lender to withdraw 100 per cent mortgages, with a spokesman citing "current market conditions" as the cause. Hundreds of types of loans have now disappeared from the market, making credit increasingly hard to find.

Chatham-based Kent Reliance Building Society, which has never offered a 100 per cent mortgage, has seen a sudden rise in the number of calls as people desperately scour the market looking for loans and mortgages.

Rob Procter, deputy chief executive, said: "We have brokers and individuals ringing us who would not have thought to have rung us before. However, we have always been cautious and we do not lend to people with bad debt."

His interpretation of the withdrawal of 100 per cent mortgages was that some lenders had offered too much in the past and were now having to re-think.

He said: "We have never issued a standard 100 per cent mortgage. Our maximum loan has always been 95 per cent and it still remains 95 per cent and we have not intention of reducing it."

"If we go back a year some of them would almost lend anybody anything. They were so desperate to lend they would lend 100 per cent or more.

"Quite frankly people could not afford it. Now, because of the fall-out from the credit crunch in America they have withdrawn all their products.

"100 per cent mortgages were very nice I’m sure, but normally it is right to expect somebody to pay something in. You should lend people what they can afford to pay and expect them to pay a deposit in."

He advised first-time buyers to consider shared equity schemes, where they pay rent on a proportion of the property while buying the other part. In that instance lenders including Kent Reliance will consider lending 100 per cent of the requested amount.

He said he believed property continued to be a good investment, despite indications prices are dropping.

"My personal view is that there is not enough property on the market and that property will still be a good investment over the long term. "However at the moment everybody is talking down the market."