New mortgage approvals - the future pipeline of completions, were also up 31% on February 2011 and 29% on January 2012, indicating an increased level of consumer activity with mutuals.
On the other side of the balance sheet mutuals experienced a retail savings outflow of £87 million in the month compared to an inflow of £359 million in February 2011. This is an improvement on January where the outflow was £1.1 billion.
Adrian Coles, Director-General of the Building Societies Association, said:
"Gross lending and new mortgage approvals by mutuals continued to rise year-on-year in February, despite growth across the market as a whole remaining relatively flat. The strong financial results released by a number of mutual lenders in recent months show that the sector is well positioned to offer market leading products to its customers and are open for business. "
"Household finances remain under pressure. Rising unemployment, declining real incomes and a lower-for-longer base rate environment combine to make it difficult and less attractive for savers to increase their deposits in savings accounts. It is therefore unsurprising that savings balances fell slightly in February."
Brian Murphy, Head of Lending at Mortgage Advice Bureau, comments:
“When today’s mortgage approval figures from the BSA are considered in light of those from the Bank of England, you can clearly see that this sector is looking to grow their share of what is a relatively flat market. Indeed, they appear to be picking up some of the slack created by a lower appetite for mortgage lending exhibited by some of the traditional high street institutions.
“Gross lending by building societies is also up which is excellent news for consumers who are hoping to find competitive good-value deals. Over the last few years, building societies have focused on innovation and flexibility with regards to mortgage lending and – in what is still a tough market – this appears to be paying dividends.”
