The UAE's mortgage market is suffering from a lack of variety in the products and services it offers, says Hamptons International.

"All the products here are very vanilla whereas the UK market, for example, is very mature," said Chris Allen, Head of Operations at the estate agent's mortgage division. "Some best fits for this market would be fixed interest rates, a cap-and-collar rate and interest-only mortgages. With a cap-and-collar scheme the maximum and minimum rates are fixed for a specific period," he said.

Hamptons International – part of Emaar – recently signed a deal with Emirates NBD to provide a three-year fixed rate.

"There are a lot of buyers who are keen to know what their outflow is going to be," said Allen.

Arif Alharmi, CEO of Shariah-complaint mortgage provider Amlak, said: "The mortgage portfolio in Dubai is high-end quality – finance companies and banks have been prudent in their lending. It would be interesting to offer product variation to buyers in this market. We have launched something called 'one-hour approval', which is an automated credit scoring system. We are the only mortgage provider in the country offering this service today."

"A lot of people have lost out on buying properties in Dubai because they could not get an answer on a loan immediately. With the new service they will be able to secure a loan from us in an hour," Alharmi said.

"We have also launched an Easy Start service where only the profit [the substitute for interest in a Shariah-compliant loan] portion of the monthly repayments are paid by the customer for the first four years of the loan. At the end of this period they can either pay off the entire amount or convert the principal into a flexible plan that can be paid over the remaining finance period."

Meanwhile, Hamptons International says a competitive interest rate is the most important factor for those seeking mortgages.

"The first priority for most people is a low rate," said Allen. "Next in importance are low charges for the services and products offered by lenders and then come low redemption penalties. Standard Chartered and the Commercial Bank of Dubai have the best interest rates – they charge about four per cent over the Emirates Interbank Offered Rate."

However, Allen said, the demand for low rates did not prevent banks from raising their charges if they felt they offered strong products.

A recent report by Al Mal Capital revealed mortgage finance in the UAE constituted only 5.9 per cent of gross domestic product.