Building societies approve 91,000 mortgages in Q1
Building societies lent 12.7 billion of gross new mortgages in the first three months of the year, new data released by the BSA has revealed.
This accounts for 29% of all new lending across the market. Societies also approved over 91,000 mortgages in the first quarter.
Mortgage lending by building societies, net of repayments, was £3.5 billion in Q1. Across all other lenders net lending was negative at -£0.5 billion. Net lending by all lenders totalled £3.0 billion.
In the savings market the effect of NSI’s Pensioner Bonds was clear, with building societies seeing savings balances fall by £2.2 billion in the first quarter of the year.
Commenting, Paul Broadhead, Head of Mortgage Policy at the BSA said:
“Lending by building societies has been strong. Without the contribution of this section of the market the stock of mortgage loans across the UK would have shrunk in the first three months of the year.
“Societies hold a 20% share of mortgage balances, but have had a much greater share of the flow of new lending for some time. In the first quarter they delivered 29% of all new mortgages. This is partly because of competitive products and partly due to the more personal approach they take to underwriting. The trend looks set to continue in Q2, as around a third of mortgage approvals in Q1 were from building societies.”
Building society mortgage lending figures can be downloaded here.
