Skipton Building Society grew its mortgage book by £1.3bn to £12.7bn, an annual growth rate of 11.2 per cent, compared to 9.2 per cent in 2013.
Its annual results, published today (25 February) revealed gross residential mortgage lending was also up 23 per cent to £3bn, pushing the group’s profit before tax to £181.6m, an increase of 75 per cent.
The annual results also showed that it helped 19,512 homeowners - up from 14,109 in 2013 - to purchase or remortgage their properties.
This included 2,946 first-time buyers, up from 2,283 in 2013, and 667 buyers who used the Help to Buy equity loan scheme.
Skipton claimed its net residential mortgage lending accounted for 5.3 per cent of the growth in the UK residential mortgage market, compared to its 0.9 per cent share of UK residential mortgage balances.
The report also stated that the rental market remained strong and £323m of new lending was on buy-to-let mortgages - although this was down from £411m in 2013.
The mortgages and savings division produced profit before tax of £98.4m, up 91 per cent from £51.5m on 2013. The division also accepts deposits through its Guernsey-based subsidiary Skipton International, with offshore deposits up by 15 per cent to £0.90bn from £0.78bn.
The group’s estate agency Connells, increased its profit before tax by 26 per cent to £63.2m, from £50.2m in 2013.
David Cutter, Skipton’s group chief executive, said that whilst the performance was “outstanding”, he remains acutely conscious of the impact of the low interest rate environment on savers.
The report added that uncertainties will remain regarding the strength of the eurozone and if there is no clear mandate emanating from the UK general election in May 2015.
peter.walker@ft.com
