The mortgage network credited the “buoyant housing market” driven by the extension to the stamp duty holiday for its rise in mortgage and surveying business.
Its surveying services arm supported 263,000 surveys compared to 185,000 the year before.
Reporting its financial results for the first half of 2021, Legal & General Group posted a 14 per cent rise in operating profits from £946m to £1,079m.
The group’s equity release and retirement interest only mortgage lending arm, Legal & General Retirement Retail (LGRR), completed £414m of business up 14 per cent on last year, however lending lending levels remained lower than the six months ended 31 December 2020 when £439m of business was completed.
At the end of June, equity release accounted for seven per cent of L&G’s total annuity assets. Its equity release business portfolio has an average customer age of 72 and a weighted average loan-to-value of around 30 per cent at the point of loan approval.
L&G expects the lifetime mortgage market to become more competitive but said it plans to maintain its pricing levels at the expense of lending volumes if needed.
A trend noted by LGRR is a rise in interest from wealthier equity release borrowers. According to the group, owners of higher value properties are becoming more interested in using equity release when planning the distribution of their estate to the family.
