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Almost half (48 per cent) of the intermediaries polled by Financial Times Business Research felt in 10 years time between 10 and 25 per cent of borrowers would have an offset mortgage.

About 17 per cent thought between 25 per cent and half of the nation's borrowers would opt for this sort of deal while 5 per cent said more than 50 per cent of people would have opted for offset by 2013.

Offset deals accounted for 7 per cent of mortgages taken out in 2006, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

According to CML, in 2006 170,000 offset mortgages were taken out worth £29.3bn. Year-on-year growth of offset mortgages between April 2006 and March 2007 was 49 per cent by value, compared with 15 per cent for non-offset lending.

While it may be music to the ears of offset providers that intermediaries expect to arrange even more of these loans for their clients in coming years, our survey also showed advisers are still not fully aware of the benefits of such deals.

Nine out of 10 intermediaries polled online between April and May said it was the fact the product could be used to pay off the mortgage early that proved most attractive to their clients.

However the fact offset could result in a reduced tax bill was recognised as an attractive attribute of this type of deal by only 54 per cent of the 114 mortgage intermediaries surveyed by FT Business researchers.

Lenders may be more concerned to hear when we asked advisers why they were not encouraging more people to opt for offset now, 77 per cent said their clients did not have enough savings to make the deal worthwhile.

Four out of 10 intermediaries said offset was not suitable for buy-to-let investors despite the fact the product can be used to release funds for purchasing multiple properties.

About 71 per cent of the advisers polled said offset was not something they would consider to be ideal for first-time buyers and 43 per cent thought these deals were only somewhat suitable for those with more than £8000 of saving.

Cammy Amaira, director of sales for Intelligent Finance, said: "Historically, offset deals were only seen as a viable option for people with large amounts of savings but research showed that households with savings worth just 8 per cent of their mortgage balance could be better off with an offset mortgage.

"Offset may not be suitable for everyone but there is a large proportion of the UK mortgage market, which if they did their homework, could definitely be better off with an offset.

"Offset also provides a great deal of flexibility with the options to make overpayments, underpayments or take payment holidays, providing consumers with full control and enabling them to take an holistic view of their finances. This means that they can fit their mortgage around their demands and changes in their financial circumstances."

On the subject of what was preventing advisers arranging more offset deals for their clients, six out of 10 said offset rates were simply not competitive enough.

Mr Amaira said: "Rates have become more comparable with standard deals and are suitable for more people, such as anyone who keeps a healthy cash balance, self-employed people, professionals who get lump-sum bonuses and those with commission-based or irregular income."

Reassuringly only 5 per cent said the fact clients earn no interest on their savings account if they opted for offset was a practical barrier when recommending these mortgages.

When it came to encouraging more consumers to opt for offset 74 per cent of intermediaries said they would like to see more innovation in the market.

Almost two-thirds (65 per cent) of advisers polled said they felt there had been very little innovation in the offset market in the last five years.

About 53 per cent of intermediaries said there was not a wide enough range of offset deals available at the moment.

On the subject of innovation in the market Mr Amaira said with advances in technology such point-of-sales decision and offers, lenders were increasingly looking towards technology to further speed up service times and offer a slicker service to customers.

He said: "We have recently implemented some exciting improvements to our online processing as well as a range of new initiatives including an online mortgage promise, which will provide clients with an instant online decision on their mortgage application and this can be printed and taken away.

"Along with this we have introduced online anti-money laundering verification and online documents at point of sale, all of which will make it even easier and quicker for advisers to do business with us."

What is clear from Mortgage Adviser's reader survey is intermediaries see offset scooping up increased market share as we head to the second decade of the twenty-first century.

However the message they are sending out to lenders is more must be done if this product is to feature on an increasing number of borrowers' radars.

Only 9 per cent of the mortgage advisers polled by our researchers felt there was nothing more that could be done to improve understanding and take up of these deals.

Six out of 10 advisers think more lenders should offer offset and 54 per cent find clients struggle to get to grips with the product.

Let us hope lenders are listening as the benefit for both providers, consumers and advisers of the continued push and development of offset could be considerable.