Dudley Building Society is the latest lender to temporarily withdraw from new mortgage business citing “increasing demand” and “high volume[s]” of applications.
It is at least the seventh lender to do so in recent months, following successive months of central bank base rate rises which have led to constant product repricing and pressure on lenders' service levels.
In an email to brokers this afternoon (August 18), Dudley said it will continue to underwrite and assess each application already received, and withdraw products by close of business this week.
“Due to increasing demand for our specialist mortgage offering, we are receiving a continuously high volume of mortgage applications,” the specialist lender said.
“This increasing volume of applications has impacted our service levels, which our dedicated intermediary support team have been working to reduce.”
Today (August 19), the lender intends to temporarily withdraw all the mortgage products available on its website.
Withdrawals from the market have disproportionately occurred in specialists versus mainstream lenders.
Out of the seven lenders which have had to pull out of new business for a time, only one - Coventry Building Society - has been a notably larger lender.
Earlier this week, specialist lender Gatehouse House bank took the same decision as Dudley, citing an “unprecedented level of demand” for its services.
This month, Suffolk Building Society, Coventry Building Society and Saffron Building Society all temporarily stopped accepting new mortgage business due to pressure on service levels.
In July, The Cambridge Building Society did the same for intermediated mortgage business, and in June so did specialist lender Hodge for Intermediaries.
Hodge and Coventry have lifted their pauses on new business, while the other five lenders - Suffolk, Saffron, Cambridge, Gatehouse and now Dudley - still have their temporary pauses in place.
ruby.hinchliffe@ft.com
