Abbey Now UK’s Largest Mortage Lender
July 30th, 2008 by 
Guy
The Abbey this week claimed it has overtaken HBOS as the UK’s biggest mortgage lender with a market share of 26% for the whole of UK residential mortgage lending.
The last listing of HBOS’ market share was 21% two years ago but the Council of Mortgage Lenders is due to post 2007 market share listings later this week.Abbey’s latest results show mortgage balances were up 13% compared to 2007.
The Abbey attributes its strength in the first half of 2008 to an increase in retention of mortgages and its ability to offer higher margin, lower LTV new business, while other lenders were pulling back from the mortgage market.
Abbey also puts its gross mortgage lending at £19.5bn, 16% higher than first half of 2007.
The Abbey also states their remortgage part remains the strongest area of the mortgage market and that the lender has retained around 63% of its mortgage business via remortgages which represents a 15% increase from the previous year.
Antonio Horta-Osorio, chief executive of Abbey, says: “Since last September 2006 we have been managing the profitability of our mortgage business carefully maintaining a balance between the margin of new business, prudent lending criteria and our market share aspirations.
“As a consequence Abbey’s net mortgage lending has increased significantly against the same period last year driven by strong performances in both retention activity and gross lending volumes.”
He adds: “Abbey and Santander have a proven and successful business model. We continue to grow our business in a balanced and prudent way based on a strong relationship with our customers and broad product offering.”
Posted in Mortgage news | 