The Intermediary speaks to Andrew Greenwood about the Society’s positive lending results for the half-year ending in June 2023, its commitment to supporting borrowers and what to expect for the remainder of the year.
The results showed that Leeds broke all kinds of lending records in the first half of this year, what are your thoughts regarding this performance?
I’m really pleased with our performance, which shows how we’ve continued deliver on our purpose – putting homeownership within reach for more people.
We’ve been there for our borrowers and savers in a period of exceptional economic volatility, but we’ve also kept innovating in the first half of the year as well.
We launched Experian Boost, in partnership with Experian, which can help an applicant get over the line by boosting their credit score, where they’ve got a good payment history and regular outgoings.
We’ve launched our Home Deposit Saver, which gives a bonus of £500 when we issue a mortgage offer to an applicant, and we’ve also launched our Limited Company buy-to-let as well.
In particular, I’m really proud of the fact that almost half of our new borrowers, 7700 out of 15,800, were first-time buyers, which again, really underlines our purpose.
As you mentioned, 49% of all your new business during this period was from first-time buyers, what is it that sets Leeds apart in the first-time buyer market?
It’s our purpose and our focus on first-time buyers.
We don’t do any lending on credit cards or commercial activities; we are a mortgage lender and first-time buyers are absolutely our focus.
We’ve been the country’s leading Shared Ownership lender for many years, and indeed, What Mortgage has recognised the Society as Best Shared Ownership Lender for the eighth year in a row this year.
So we are, in essence, continuing our history of supporting the affordable housing market.
Six out of 10 of our biggest ever days for lending were in H1.
Q2 2023 represented our biggest ever quarter in terms of value and volume for both residential lending and Shared Ownership – so we are just continuing to build on our history of supporting the housing market, particularly first-time buyers.
Leeds was also one of the first signatories on the Government’s new Mortgage Charter recently, why was it important for you to support this initiative?
We were one of the first signatories and we were one of the first lenders to get a really simple, digital solution launched to support the Charter.
Our purpose is not only about getting people into a home, it’s also about keeping people in a home, so it’s also equally important for us that we are there for our existing borrowers. The Charter is a big part of that commitment.
We’ve further invested in the number of colleagues who are able to support any customers in financial difficulty.
But, to date our book has been really resilient, given the current state of the market. Arrears, judged by 1.5% or more of the loan being in arrears, have gone up only slightly since the year end – from 0.58% to 0.63%. But actually, it’s about the same level as H1 last year, where it was 0.62%.
However, we are ready to support customers with a variety of tailored options in addition to the Charter.
Needless to say, the market is pretty turbulent at the moment. From a broker’s perspective – what is the Society doing in order to support brokers during this difficult time?
Our net promoter score for brokers remains very high. That’s perhaps not surprising in that we are seeking to achieve the same thing which is to support clients and members along their journey.
In our conversations with brokers, they tell us they are very pleased with the fact that we’ve focused very hard on achieving a simpler application process with quicker decisioning.
Also, they can now get access to our specialist underwriters if they have any queries or need support with a particular application.
In a timely way, the Consumer Duty obviously comes in from the end of this month, and we are standing ready to help our broker partners out in that regard.
Finally, in light of these positive half-year results, what’s next for Leeds? What can we expect going into the second half on 2023 and beyond?
More of the same. It clearly is an uncertain period, but you can also see from our results today that, give or take, provisions are broadly in the same place as they were.
We will continue to support first-time buyers and the affordable housing market in the second half of the year.
We will be looking to further innovate in the context of how we engage with brokers and the markets, focusing on those simpler journeys and an easier application process.
Also, we are going to be doing some work around our brand its particular focus on first-time buyers in Q3.
