Mortgage News
Nationwide lent highest six-month mortgage total in five years – results
In the half year interim results to 30 September, the Nationwide Group increased its gross mortgage lending by 37% to £14bn, its highest six-month tally in five years.
Nationwide’s results follow Lloyds’ at the end of October which suggested Lloyds is likely to remain the UK’s biggest lender. Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland advanced £25.2bn between January and September.
For Nationwide however, lending to first-time buyers was 52% higher than the same time last year, at £6.7bn. This means it lent one in five first-time buyer loans in the UK.
Total number of mortgage borrowers jumped 45% to reach 56,500, handing the mutual 15.4% of market share. Over the same period, the Nationwide Group’s net lending was £5.6bn, up 75% on 2012/13.
The lender is participating in government schemes, including the Help to Buy equity loan schemes in England and Scotland, New Buy and MI New Homes in Scotland. But Nationwide maintained it has no plans to launch a Help to Buy 2 product.
Alsion Robb, Nationwide’s group director of retail said the mutual has been lending up to 95% LTV for some time and just had an incredibly strong lending performance.
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“We are very supportive of the government initiative but at this point, we are comfortable with the level we are lending,” said Robb.
Nationwide said it expected levels of first-time buyers to pick up and spread more broadly across the rest of the UK out from its beginnings in London and the South East.
On buy to let, Robb said The Mortgage Works lent between £1.5-£2bn over the period, which is broadly in line with expectations.
“We ares eeing rental yields hold steady. Our strategy is to maintain our stable position in this sector. The message is essentially, more of the same,” she said.
Chris Rhodes, Nationwide’s executive director, said: “As you might expect from the UK’s largest building society, Nationwide has continued to focus on first-time buyers and on promoting the link between saving and access to low deposit mortgage deals. We have continued to reserve our best deals for our existing customers while giving additional help to first-time buyers and those with small deposits, including through our Save to Buy scheme.”
Robb said in the last six months, the lender has been able to capitalise on the less aggressive stance taken by competitors earlier in the year.