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First-time Buyers

Yorkshire BS lent £4.6bn in 2012; 38% reached first-time buyers

Julia Rampen
Written By:
Julia Rampen
Posted:
Updated:
21/02/2013

Yorkshire Building Society lent

This marks an increase of lending of 12.2% on 2011, with its market share rising from 2.95 to 3.2% with over £1.7bn of lending reaching first-time buyers.

New lending above 85% loan-to-value rose from 3.3% of all lending in 2011 to 10.7%, or £490m. Lending to buy-to-let and social housing borrowers also increased, with further allocations planned over the next five years.

The building society also hiked up lending on commercial properties to £60m, or 82% more than in 2011.

One in four direct mortgages were offset, allowing borrowers to reduce the term of their mortgage or lower their monthly payments by linking to their savings

Overall, mortgage balances increased by 2% to £27.6bn. The building society’s market share of net lending also grew slightly, to 8.1%.

This represents a market share of 3.2% of new lending – only a slight increase on last year, despite a 2011 merger with Norwich and Peterborough building society and the Egg mortgage and savings business. Profits before tax increased 21% to £157.1m.

Yorkshire Building Society chief executive Chris Pilling said the mutual’s core operating profit remained strong and gave the group the opportunity for significant investment: “We are now embarking on another important phase in our growth.

“After completing a series of mergers and acquisitions we entered a period of integration while continuing to grow our business. Having consolidated that position, we are now investing in making the most of our expanded capability to enhance our products and breadth of services.

“The £160m we will invest over the next five years, including £60m in 2013, will improve our back-office infrastructure and staff development and enable us to meet customers’ needs more quickly and robustly.

“Ultimately, this investment will support our commitment to our members and further contrast the Yorkshire with the many financial services providers which have scaled back lending, closed branches or walked away from providing face-to-face financial advice.”

The building society remained committed to serving both borrowers and savers, he added.