The mutual, the fifth largest building society in the UK, announced that its pre-tax profits increased 33% to £42.2m in 2010, up from £31.7m 2009, while its operating profit rose 5% to a record £84.5m.
Over the course of last year, the Leeds increased its new lending by 7% to £984m, which it said represented £250m above its market share. The mutual recorded an average LTV on new mortgages of 53%.
Ian Ward, chief executive of Leeds Building Society (pictured), highlighted that all its residential lending is funded by retail savings, with Leeds’ savings balances growing by £245m in 2010 to a record £7bn.
Ward said: “In 2011, we plan to increase our new lending by at least 25% to around £1.25bn. This will be welcomed by home buyers as we provide more capacity and choice to the UK mortgage market.”
The mutual’s residential arrears of 2.5% or more of the outstanding mortgage balance improved over 2010 to 2.16% from 2.24% at the end of 2009.
The charge for impairment losses and provisions for commercial and residential property also dropped £8.3m to £44.2m.
In addition, the Leeds increased it membership by 52,000 to 684,000.
Ward said: “”Leeds Building Society has again proven its ability to deliver higher levels of profitability, savings balances and new mortgage lending as well as an increase in members and very strong capital and reserves.
“This means that we are in an excellent position to increase new lending significantly in 2011 and continue to be a successful, independent building society throughout this year and beyond.”
