MortgagesMay 4 2016

Virgin Money mortgage lending hits new high

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Virgin Money mortgage lending hits new high

Virgin Money has achieved record gross mortgage lending at the start of this year, up 30 per cent on the first quarter of 2015, to £2.1bn.

Residential gross mortgage lending increased by 35 per cent in the first three months of 2016, compared with the start of 2015, while buy-to-let gross lending was up by 17 per cent.

Net mortgage lending was up 59 per cent during the start of this year, compared with the same period during 2015, to £1.1bn.

Jayne-Anne Gadhia, chief executive of Virgin Money, said the volume of buy-to-let lending is expected to reduce in the second quarter, compared to the volume written in the first quarter.

She added Virgin Money entered the second quarter with a strong pipeline and continues to expect overall gross lending volumes to increase year-on-year in 2016.

The mortgage book comprised 82 per cent residential and 18 per cent buy-to-let mortgages at the end of March.

During the first four months of 2016, Virgin Money offered two issues of residential mortgage backed securities totalling £1.3bn. Both offerings were multiple times oversubscribed.

 

(£bn)

3 months to
31 March 2016

3 months to
31 March 2015

Growth

Gross mortgage lending

2.1

1.6

+30%

Net mortgage lending

1.1

0.7

+59%





(£bn)

As at 31 March 2016

As at 31 December 2015

Growth

Mortgage balances

26.5

25.5

+4%

Credit cards balances

1.8

1.6

+15%

Deposit balances

26.3

25.1

+4%

 

Ms Gadhia stated: “We had a record start to the year for mortgages and our savings franchise continues to flourish with a strong inflow of cash Isas.”

The trading update came just days after Virgin Money reduced the rates on a number of products across its Help to Buy equity loan and residential mortgage ranges.

These include equity loan rates, which have been reduced by up to 0.21 per cent, and two-year fixed rate equity loan products, now available from 1.84 per cent.

In addition, the previous maximum loan size of £187,500 applicable to Help to Buy equity loan Stamp Duty Buster products was removed.