According to its half-year results, the company helped around 8,951 first-time buyers in the period, which is an increase of 43 per cent year-on-year.
Group mortgage balances reported growth of 6.8 per cent to £27.2bn.
The report added that it had increased its market share of mortgage balances to 1.6 per cent, which compared to 1.49 per cent as of the end of the year.
The group’s UK residential mortgages in arrears by three months came to 324 cases in June 2023, or equal to 0.13 per cent of mortgage accounts.
Skipton said that this compared to the industry average of 0.72 per cent.
The firm added that since November it had conducted 7,198 EPC surveys for savings and mortgage customers as part of its EPC Plus programme. This provided £492,000 of benefit to members, with a further 133 scheduled.
The group’s profit before tax came to £148.9m, which compares to £160m in the same period last year.
Connells Group hit by mini Budget but Skipton International reports growth
Connells Group entered this year with a sales pipeline around 26 per cent lower than last year due to the impact of the mini Budget.
Skipton Group said that the “challenging economic environment” had impacted the housing market, with Connells’ revenue during the period came to £452.9m, which is 10 per cent lower than the same period last year.
However, the firm maintained a market share of 10 per cent and has a strong balance sheet and substantial cash reserves.
Skipton Group said that Connells “remains well placed to capitalise on whatever market conditions present themselves going forward”.
“Throughout the first half of 2023 we have seen positive signs of improvement as transaction volumes recover. Rather than waiting, home buyers remain active but are exercising caution, with many adjusting their property expectations and approach to financing,” it explained.
Skipton International, the group’s Guernsey-based business, reported a pre-tax profit of £24.5m, which is up from £18m, and mortgage balances came to £2.1bn, an increase from £2bn.
There are no cases in arrears of three months or more.
‘Good progress’ on three strategic priorities
Stuart Haire (pictured), Skipton Group’s chief executive, said that it was making “good progress” in both growth and transformation initiatives across its “three strategic priorities – Helping More People Have a Home; Making Money Work Harder; and Making Membership Matter”.
He continued: “We have an ambition to make a positive impact through buying and selling homes with our estate agencies and by financing homes through our Home Financing business, in order to tackle the UK’s housing crisis by enabling more first-time buyers to realise their homeownership aspirations without access to ‘the bank of Mum and Dad’.”
Haire pointed to the launch of its track record mortgage, which is a deposit-free mortgage, with the value of applications totaling over £28m since its launch in May.
He continued that it was undergoing a transformation programme to “further upgrade our digital capability to sit alongside our human touch and member centric service”.
“We have aligned our structure to our purpose. Our group structure and the leadership team has been strengthened in the first half of 2023 to help turn our three priorities, and all our group potential, into a reality. It is our group platform that allows us to support members and customers in every stage of the home-owning process-saving, buying, protecting, greening, selling and investing,” Haire added.
