Suffolk Building Society has delivered a strong financial performance for the year ending 30th November 2022, achieving sustained growth in its mortgage book, savings balances, and profits.
The Society has seen its mortgage book grow by 7% (£39m) to £655m, significantly ahead of plan.
This was largely due to high demand earlier in the year, particularly for remortgages, as interest rates rose, and homeowners and buyers looked to lock in fixed rate mortgages.
During its 2022 financial year, the Society processed 1,251 applications resulting in 670 completions for the year with an average loan size of £244k.
Growth is also due to the Society’s focus on targeting niche mortgage markets and on its intermediary relationships.
The Society also benefitted from interest rate swaps, used to smooth out interest rate exposure on fixed rate products.
During the year to 30 November 2022, the Society expanded its mortgage proposition with the following product types; expat holiday let borrowing, self-build large loans (£1m-£2m), increased maximum loan sizes to £1m up to 80% loan-to-value.
The Society also re-entered the shared ownership market with both fixed and discount products.
In response to the impact of increased mortgage rates, the Society has put in place a Payment Shock Taskforce which proactively contacts borrowing members when their mortgage payments have risen by a significant amount.
The Society has not seen any increase in mortgage arrears or payment arrangement requests despite the challenging conditions in the economy.
In addition to being awarded Best Building Society, the Society’s mortgage business was Highly Commended for both the Best Specialist Mortgage Provider at the British Bank Awards, and Regional Lending Provider at the Moneyfacts Awards.
Peter Elcock, Suffolk Building Society chairman, said: “2022 saw strong mortgage performance in another year of global uncertainty and political volatility, during which we carefully managed our offering to prioritise positive and consistent service levels and excellent customer outcomes.
“As such, we’re delighted with the feedback from Smart Money People’s Mortgage Lender Benchmark Report H1 2022, in which intermediaries gave us a people score of 100%, and regard our product performance as being above that of our peers and other lenders.
“2022 was, of course, a difficult year for many, financially, and our borrowers on variable rate mortgages, or those coming to the end of their fixed term, faced rising interest rates after a period of historically low rates. As far as possible we have tried to support our borrowing members, while balancing their needs with those of our investing members”.
