The lender’s annual results show it completed £14.4bn in mortgage lending during 2013, down from the £16.4bn recorded in the previous 12 months.
This figure included £3.8bn of lending in the first-time buyer space, reaching more than 30,000 first-time buyers.
HSBC, which topped the best buy tables for much of the year with headline rates as low as 1.49%, said its new mortgages had a typical loan-to-value of 59.5%. This compares with an average LTV of 48.3% for its existing mortgage portfolio.
Despite the fall in gross mortgage lending, net lending grew from £78.5bn at the end of 2012 to £80bn a year later.
The lender said increased margins on UK residential lending had helped its European Retail Banking Wealth Management division to a profit of £1.2bn, up from £411m last year.
HSBC said it currently holds £29.6bn in interest-only mortgages, accounting for 37% of its UK mortgage portfolio. The bank continues to operate in the sector to High Net Worth customers at ‘conservative LTV ratios’.
The lender said it had written off residential mortgages worth £53m in the last 12 months, compared to £17m the year before.
