Newcastle Building Society’s gross mortgage lending stood at £584m in the first half of the year, compared to £660m in the same period last year.
According to Newcastle Building Society’s latest report, the firm received over £1bn in new mortgage applications, supporting over 2,000 first-time buyers in the period.
The lender said its core residential mortgage book grew by £280m in the first half of the year.
The firm said that there had been a small increase in underlying arrears levels due to ongoing “cost-of-living pressures”. Arrears of three months or more stood at 1.06%, up from 0.37% at the half-year mark last year and 0.87% at the end of last year.
The mutual said that part of the reason that its arrears had risen was due to mortgages acquired through the merger with Manchester Building Society and it had redefined its arrears definition to include interest-only mortgages that have passed their capital repayment date.
Newcastle Building Society said that there were 14 properties in possession at the half-year mark, which is up from nil in the same period last year. Two were from voluntary possession and seven were from its legacy equity release loans.
The mutual’s underlying profit came to £15.6m, which is up from £15m in the same period last year.
Newcastle Building Society launches in-house broker platform
The report said that most of its lending was “delivered through our network of intermediary partners” and it had “invested significantly in our service” with the launch of a new digital mortgage application platform for brokers.
It continued: “By listening to brokers and understanding their needs, we’ve built a new platform in-house, which brokers have told us helps to simplify and accelerate the process, giving them more time to spend with their clients.”
The report added that 61% of its broker partners say our new platform is “better or substantially better than other lenders’ systems”.
Anna is currently the deputy editor for Mortgage Solutions and editor for Specialist Lending Solutions. She has worked as a journalist since 2019, having secured her Gold Standard NCTJ diploma from News Associates in a fast-track six-month course.
She started her career as a report at specialist publication The Insurance Insider covering a wide range of areas before joining Mortgage Solutions and Specialist Lending Solutions in 2021.
In her role, she helps put together and structure the news agenda for the day and writes up press releases, reports, interviews, analyses and exclusives across both titles. She also commissions blogs for Specialist Lending Solutions and hosts online masterclasses and in-person events across the business.
She has been shortlisted for three journalism awards, which include BIBA Journalist and Media Awards Scoop of Year Award in 2020, Headline Money Mortgage Journalist of the Year Award (B2B) in 2022 and 2023.
Prior to being a journalist, Anna worked in ecommerce across Snow + Rock, Cycle Surgery and Runners Need websites, and before that worked at specialist financial PR firm Rostrum.
In her spare time, Anna enjoys reading, seeing live music, and cooking for friends and family. When she gets a chance, she also enjoys hiking, skiing and indoor rock climbing.
