Gross mortgage lending by building societies and other mutual lenders reached £3.5bn in June, with a total of £18bn in the first half of 2013, the Building Societies Association (BSA) has revealed.
Brian Morris, head of savings policy at the BSA, has said this gives mutuals an improved market share of gross lending at 24 per cent (in the first half of 2013), when compared against the 21 per cent market share seen by mutuals during the same period in 2012.
Net new mortgage lending (gross lending minus repayments) by mutuals was £1.4bn in June and £5.5bn in the first half of the year, up from £2.6bn in the first half of 2012.
The number of approved mortgages by building societies and other mutual lenders increased from 141,200 in the first half of 2012 by 17 per cent in the same period in 2013 to 165,800.
Mr Morris said: “Building societies and other mutual lenders have performed strongly in the mortgage market during the first half of the year, with net lending of £5.5bn more than double the amount they lent in the same period in 2012”.
“In contrast lending by other larger institutions, such as banks, was negative in the first half of 2013 at minus £3bn as mortgage repayments outstripped new lending by those institutions”.
“Mutuals have increased their lending across the spectrum to all types of borrowers, including first-time buyers and those with smaller deposits. In fact, lending to first-time buyers accounted for almost a third of all lending by the sector in the year to June, helping 38,000 people take the first step on the property ladder”.
