Mortgage business at Hinckley and Rugby Building Society geared up its lending in 2016, with advances up 34% to £172m, from £128m in the previous 12 months.
Applications saw a 46% rise to £190m in the 12 months to the end of November, the society’s financial year, up from £130m in 2015.
The top 20 building society confirmed increased lending saw the society’s mortgage book grow by £65m, against £21m the year before.
The 2016 retention rate of over 70% is one of the best ever achieved at Hinckley and Rugby.
Chief executive Chris White said: “We set our staff a real challenge 12 months ago, to significantly build on our already substantial progress since the credit crunch. They have beaten what were very demanding targets and deserve huge credit.
“Retaining very close to three out of every four customers is a great testament not only to the attractiveness of our mortgage products but also how we give our customers an outstanding service from a traditional building society dedicated to our members.”
The Society will announce the full details of its year-end results in February 2017.
Victoria Hartley is contributing editor at Mortgage Solutions, Specialist Lending Solutions, Your Money and Your Mortgage at London-based publishing company AE3 Media.
Her role includes editorial oversight of the news, analysis and features, event content management and strategic and editorial consultancy for the AE3 Media group. She is an experienced video, broadcast and live-event host and regularly chairs web and podcast debates and interviews.
Multiple award nominations have resulted in two wins: Santander Media Awards, trade journalist of the year and Headlinemoney Awards, mortgage journalist of the year (B2B).
Previous roles include editorships of Mortgage Solutions, consumer title What Mortgage and trade title Credit Today and a spent time freelancing for a variety of outlets including The Guardian and Which? Money.