"Building societies have been able to support homebuyers during this period, approving 28% of all new mortgage loans in the third quarter of the year."
Building societies approved 111,800 new mortgage loans over the quarter - up 5% on the 106,200 loans approved in Q3 2019, a 26% market share.
The data shows that building societies hold outstanding mortgage balances of £338.0bn, a 23% market share, and up 1% on the £333.9bn at the end of Q3 2019.
Despite growing their market share, gross lending saw an annual fall of 9% to £14.6bn, while net lending was £1.2bn, down 43% compared to the £2.1 billion lent in Q3 2019.
Paul Broadhead, head of mortgage policy at the BSA said: “It has been a turbulent year for the mortgage market, with transactions collapsing due to the lockdown in March, but approvals for house purchase recovering to 10 year highs in the third quarter, as pent up demand was released and buyers rushed to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday.
“Building societies have been able to support homebuyers during this period, approving 28% of all new mortgage loans in the third quarter of the year.
“Although the housing and mortgage markets are buoyant at the moment, and the wider economy has recovered somewhat, we are far from out of the woods. Around 9% of the workforce (3.3 million jobs) are currently being supported by the furlough scheme, and only once this and other government support has ended will the long term impact of coronavirus be fully understood. We are also concerned about the cliff edge effect of the abrupt end of the stamp duty holiday on 31 March and have called on the Government to taper its removal to lessen market impact."
