Yorkshire Building Society has published its half-year results, recording £4.2bn gross lending.
The society helped 23,000 people to own a home, with mortgage balances increasing to £45.9bn.
The growth in savings balances to £45.6bn was helped by the opening of 320,000 new savings accounts.
Yorkshire Building Society made three increases to variable savings rates in the first six months of the year, paying rates 1.04 percentage points higher than the market average.
The member-owned mutual achieved a pre-tax profit of £180.6m in the six months to 30th June and delivered a core operating profit of £246.4m, compared with £192.5m in June 2022.
The mutual also delivered over 650 financial education sessions to young people across the UK, surpassed the £1m milestone for its charity partner Age UK, and expanded its partnership with Citizens Advice.
Susan Allen (pictured), chief executive officer at Yorkshire Building Society, said: “I’m delighted that these results – my first at the Society – demonstrate the strength and stability of our organisation.
“Against a backdrop of economic challenges, we’ve further improved the Society’s financial strength while delivering real help to our members and customers.
“Despite inflationary pressures and our continued investment to transform our business for the future increasing our costs, we’ve strengthened profitability, which as a mutual building society with no external shareholders, will be reinvested into the Society.
“After years of historically low savings rates, I’m pleased we’ve been at the forefront of giving back to savers as the rate landscape changed.
“So far this year we’ve passed on the majority of Bank rate rises to our savings range, launched new loyalty savings accounts for members who have been with us a year or longer, and set rates that were on average 1.04 percentage points higher than the market average.
“This will go some way to supporting our members as they navigate the current cost-of-living challenges.”
She continued: “While lending is down on the previous half year, this was expected in the context of the wider market.
“However, the volume of applications remained high, demonstrating the strength of our mortgage range to help people own a place to call home.
“But we know borrowers are facing unprecedented times, and I want to reassure anyone worried about their ability to repay their mortgage with us that we’ll do everything we can to support them – a commitment we strengthened by signing the Mortgage Charter.
“We’re here to help and I hope borrowers reach out to let us support them through this difficult period.
“It’s these challenges that bring our purpose into even sharper focus and lead us to shape our support to help those who need it, both through our products and services, and in our communities across the UK.”
Allen added: “Our recently extended partnership with Citizens Advice is just one example of how we provide positive impact where our colleagues and members live and work.
“Now available in more than 40 of our high street branch locations, Citizens Advice advisers offer free, impartial and confidential advice.
“The results of this partnership continue to exceed expectations, but crucially can offer a lifeline to people at a time of need.
“This, together with our charitable giving, financial education, colleague volunteering and million-pound milestone for Age UK, underlines our purpose to give real help for real life.”
