The UK’s second largest mutual lender, the Yorkshire Building Society, has pledged that this year it intends to double its level of mortgage lending. Many experts are seeing this as a sign that the outlook is certainly set to improve in the UK property market for 2010.
The Yorkshire Building Society is set to acquire the Chelsea Building Society on the 1st April. Last year, the Yorkshire’s level of mortgage lending fell sharply, which its Chief Executive Iain Cornish put down to a need for increased caution as well as lower market demand for mortgages for house purchases.
The mutual mortgage lender also added in a report in the Financial Times that 92 per cent of its mortgage assets last year were funded by retail deposits. 2009 was a cautious year, but allow the building society to consolidate its assets. It reported an additional 250,000 new savings accounts were opened across the twelve month period and expects its bad debts to decrease considerably this year.
The company did report a pre-tax loss, but Cornish said that this was down to ensuring that it protected its savers from the cuts in the base interest rate in their entirety as well as ensuring they were offering competitive mortgage products to their existing borrowers – a strategy he feels will pay off.
The news on increased mortgage lending levels due from many mortgage lenders this year is great news for borrowers and mortgage advisors alike as they will have a greater choice of products for both house purchases and remortgages.
