THE 250,000 investors with more than $25bn tied up in the frozen mortgage funds sector are unlikely to see their cash until at least next year, with not one fund being unfrozen since the sector was ravaged in October.

Property Investment Research associate director Dugald Higgins said those mortgage funds would unfreeze assets only when investor sentiment in financial markets improved substantially, and no freezes were likely to be lifted until at least 2010.

'Nothing really has changed since the rush of freezing activity in October,' Higgins said.

The Australian