Mortgage brokers are again recommending Northern Rock deals, some of which look affordable after months out of the market.

The government-owned lender currently has one of the best two-year fixed rates — traditionally the most popular mortgage deal — for customers who have a 30% deposit and want to borrow more than £500,000.

Northern Rock wrote to existing customers in January, in effect advising them to remortgage with another lender when their fixed-rate deals expired.

However, it now has better deals than lenders such as Nationwide. For example, Northern Rock charges 6.49% on a two-year fix for loans of up to £1m while Nationwide charges 6.75%, with the maximum loan amount capped at £500,000.

The lender has also been writing to brokers to say it is available to service applications quickly. Darren Cook, of Moneyfacts, the financial data provider, said: “All of a sudden Northern Rock is coming back into the equation. I think its keen to lend to quality business.”

David Hollingworth of broker L&C said: “The products that Northern Rock still offers have become more competitive and we have been submitting a small number of applications. There are better products available but many are limited on maximum loan amount, so Northern Rock’s deals stack up better on larger loans.”

He added: “I think Northern Rock will have to review pricing as its competitive position improves — those being told to seek a mortgage elsewhere or even worse struggling to refinance would find it a little hard to swallow if Northern Rock was increasing new business volumes through a more competitive offering.”

Northern Rock, which has pledged to remain out of the best buy tables while under public ownership, said last week it “intends to gradually increase new mortgage origination . . . while remaining significantly below historical levels”.