According to the lender’s latest results, the mutual has helped 23,000 people own a home, compared to 28,000 in the same period last year.
The company’s mortgage balances have grown to £45.9bn, a growth of 1.5 per cent compared to the same period last year.
The lender said that its gross mortgage lending market share stood at 3.5 per cent, which is slightly up from 3.1 per cent as of 31 December 2022.
YBS said that the volume of applications in the first half of the year remained high, but not as high as the first half of last year. It said this showed the strength of its propositions, including its intermediary lender Accord Mortgages.
The firm continued that its pre-tax profit for the period came to £180.6m, which compares to £243.3m in the same period last year.
On the arrears side, the company said that the value of loans in more than three months of arrears represented 0.32 per cent of its mortgage book, in line with last year’s figure of 0.31 per cent.
The number of account with more than three months arrears, including possessions, was the same as last year at 0.44 per cent.
Market conditions will ‘remain challenging’
The report said that it expected conditions in its “core markets”, especially mortgages, to “remain challenging” for the foreseeable future due to cost of living and inflationary pressures.
It also attributed challenging conditions to a “likely reduction in market size” compared to recent years and broader economic impacts from the rising interest rate environment.
“How much of a constraint issues like affordability criteria pose to the size of the mortgage market remains to be seen, but their impacts have the potential to be material.
“Different segments of the lending market may also experience more acute impacts, for example increases in borrowing costs may have a greater bearing on the buy-to-let market. Factors like these can cause shifts in the supply and demand dynamics and carry ramifications for house price growth,” it said.
Susan Allen (pictured), chief executive officer at Yorkshire Building Society, said that she was delighted with the results, her first at the society, as it showed the “strength and stability of our organisation”.
She continued: “Despite inflationary pressures and our continued investment to transform our business for the future increasing our costs, we’ve strengthened profitability, which as a mutual building society with no external shareholders, will be reinvested into the society.”
Allen added that while lending was down this was “expected in the context of the wider market”, but the volume of applications remained high showing the strength of its mortgage range.
“But we know borrowers are facing unprecedented times, and I want to reassure anyone worried about their ability to repay their mortgage with us that we’ll do everything we can to support them – a commitment we strengthened by signing the Mortgage Charter. We’re here to help and I hope borrowers reach out to let us support them through this difficult period.
“It’s these challenges that bring our purpose into even sharper focus and lead us to shape our support to help those who need it, both through our products and services, and in our communities across the UK,” she noted.
Allen pointed to its partnership with Citizens Advice, which is now available in 40 branches, and will offer “free, impartial and confidential advice”.
