SpecialistFeb 3 2021

Bluestone Mortgages sees first profit during pandemic

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Bluestone Mortgages sees first profit during pandemic
Credit: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Bluestone Mortgages has announced a maiden profit after tax during a period that saw housing markets close for part of the year.

The specialist lender announced a profit of £2.85m after tax for the financial year ending June 30.

According to Bluestone, it wrote over £295m of loans in the financial year beginning July 1, 2019, an 18 per cent increase compared to the previous financial period.

Steve Seal, managing director at Bluestone Mortgages, said: “Despite the challenges presented by the Covid-19 trading environment, we have worked hard to ensure that our service and underwriting teams, as well as our established broker network, have been equipped to support both existing and new customers during this period.”

Mr Seal also said an ongoing focus on service levels had contributed to the recent growth of the business and that the lender’s maiden profit was underpinned by a number of factors.

He commented: “Bluestone has been growing strongly for a number of years and was trading profitably in the first half of our trading year prior to the Covid crisis impacting the housing market.  

“Bluestone has a diverse funding structure, which allowed us to deploy a number of strategies to protect the business and ensure our products could remain available to the growing number of customers needing support from lenders who specialise in complex credit.”

The lender also said application levels were up 50 per cent year-on-year between July and December 2020.

According to Bluestone, it is continuing to see “unprecedented” demand from borrowers seeking tailored lending solutions amid the pandemic.

It added that it expected this trend to continue over the long-term, in light of the number of borrowers emerging from the pandemic with more complex borrowing needs.

Intermediary-only lender Accord Mortgages also predicted standard mortgage cases would be uncommon this year following the financial impact of the pandemic.

chloe.cheung@ft.com

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