Mortgage lending hit an all-time high during the first half of this year at mutual Nationwide, according to the organisation’s latest results.

It said that £14.9bn was lent to mortgage borrowers in the first six months of 2015, up 14% on the last half-yearly figures.

The building society also helped 25,700 first-time buyers into a home of their own, up 8% on the second half of 2014.

The lender recently launched a range of mortgages that require a deposit of just 5%, and it accounts for a third of all cases in the Government’s Help to Buy shared equity scheme. Nationwide also promised to support the Government’s Help to Buy ISA initiative, and will launch a product when the scheme begins on 1st December.

In its results the mutual noted that it lent £2.9bn in buy-to-let mortgages though subsidiary The Mortgage Works – 14.9% of all UK buy-to-let lending.

Graham Beale, chief executive of Nationwide Building Society said; “This has been our best ever half year of mortgage lending along with a strong inflow of savings and the opening of over a quarter of a million new current accounts.

“We have also continued to deliver better customer satisfaction than our high street peer group, achieved excellent financial results and further improved our capital position. Mutuals, like Nationwide, are different from the banks. We serve a social purpose by providing a safe home for savings and finance for home ownership.”