The average interest rate of Countrywide’s top 10 most popular mortgages in May fell to 4.37%, which is the lowest level since December last year.

This represents a fall of 0.20% from April 10. In May 2009 the average interest rate of Countrywide’s top 10 most popular mortgages was 0.96% higher at 5.33%.

Year-to-date applications saw a 4% increase compared to the same period in 2009, while applications fell by 8% in May 2010 on the previous month. The number of new mortgage products available increased by 8.8% in May compared to the previous month – a 172% increase since May 2009.

Fixed rate mortgages made up 65% of all new applications in May, an increase of 5% from April 2010, while applications for both buy-to-let and remortgage products also increased by 3% and 4% during the same period.

Grenville Turner, Countrywide’s group chief executive, said: “The next few months will be telling. Recent activity levels clearly demonstrate that we are some way off from seeing application volumes reach pre recession levels but they are slowly recovering in line with the housing market.