Its mortgage book rose from £446.7m in 2024 to £495.5m last year, supporting first-time buyers, buy-to-let (BTL) landlords and a small tranche of development finance.
Mansfield Building Society said its underwriting practices continued to evolve and were supported by technology that enabled the mutual to extend its lending to borrowers with historical credit issues and complex incomes.
The mutual said that along with self-build, these areas saw the most growth in 2025, as more people fell into the under-served category of borrowers due to economic conditions.
Mansfield Building Society planned to slow its lending down last year as its digital transformation programme, Project Sherwood, was expected to use its resources.
However, it was able to capitalise on strong demand in the market in 2025 and will test the programme this year instead.
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Project Sherwood cost Mansfield Building Society £1.5m, impacting its underlying profit.
It ended the year with a loss of £457m, down from £1bn the year before.
Mansfield Building Society said the loss was “more than covered” by its “very adequate capital resources”.
The new system will be rolled out this year, making it easier and quicker for members and mortgage brokers to transact, while maintaining the mutual’s personal approach.
Prudent mortgage lending
The average loan to value (LTV) of Mansfield Building Society’s mortgage book was 44.1%, which it attributed to its prudency and said would give the mutual “significant headroom” if house price rises did not continue slowly rising.
There were 58 mortgage accounts in arrears of two or more months, down from 63 in 2024, and the value rose slightly from £430,000 to £435,000 across balances of £8.49m.
The mutual’s net interest margin fell slightly from 2.37% to 2.34%, reflecting the “natural run-off” of mortgages and interest rate swaps written in a higher interest rate environment.
It said new mortgages were being completed and hedged at lower rates, generating lower returns and contracting its average margin.
Despite this, its net interest income rose from £12.7m to £13.2m.
Paul Wheeler, chief executive of Mansfield Building Society, said its performance demonstrated the mutual’s commitment to customers.
Wheeler said: “In a competitive market, we have achieved strong growth through a determined effort to offer compelling products matched by excellent service.
“Not only were we awarded the accolade of Best Self-build Lender in 2025, we were also shortlisted as finalists in the British Bank Awards and the Moneyfacts Awards for our savings offer.
“Our investment in technology means that members, broker partners and colleagues will benefit from significant upgrades in 2026 as we roll out our new core banking platform, building on our success and enabling us to help more and more people build brighter financial futures.”
Over the year, the mutual donated nearly £145,000 to local charities and worthy causes through its Community Support Scheme and Charitable Trust.
