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Suffolk BS sees mortgage completions rise to £175m

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  • 18/02/2022
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Suffolk BS sees mortgage completions rise to £175m
Suffolk Building Society reported £175m in gross mortgage lending in 2021, up from £123m the year before.

 

Its mortgage balances rose by £47m during the period to £165m. 

Overall, Suffolk Building Society’s mortgage loan book grew by eight per cent annually to £615m. 

The mutual said the growth of its mortgage book was “significantly ahead of plan” and resulted from pent-up demand following the pandemic, a desire for space, the stamp duty holiday and low interest rates. 

It also attributed its growth to its strategy of targeting niche markets, building intermediary relationships and investing in its business development team. 

Suffolk Building Society also processed 1,159 mortgage applications last year, a small increase on the previous year’s 1,139. This resulted in 818 completions with an average loan size of £214,000. 

In November, the mutual which was formerly known as Ipswich Building Society, rebranded and relaunched its intermediary website. 

It said its renewed focus on brokers led to 94 per cent of its completed mortgage business being conducted through intermediaries. 

In the 12 months leading up to its rebrand, Suffolk Building Society expanded its product range with a return to 90 per cent loan to value (LTV) mortgages and the reintroduction of shared ownership. This sat alongside £22m of self-build lending and the decision to increase the maximum loan size to £1m for 80 per cent LTV products. 

The mutual reported a heightened profit before tax figure of £2.9m, up on £1.9m in 2020. 

Alan Harris, chairman of Suffolk Building Society, said: “We’ve had another year of strong mortgage performance which was indeed assisted by the buoyant property market. With ongoing operational challenges due to the pandemic, we carefully managed our offering to deliver positive and consistent service levels and good customer outcomes. 

“We’re delighted to have introduced Smart Money People, an external customer review service, which gives us access to high-quality competitor benchmarking based on member and intermediary feedback.” 

Harris added: “Looking forward, intermediaries will be particularly pleased to know that we have high expectations for our new mortgage origination platform which will launch later in the year.  

“It will give us flexibility over product features and allow us to be even quicker at reacting to market changes – which, with the possibility of more interest rate rises on the horizon, will further help to increase our operating efficiency.” 

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