Building societies upped gross mortgage lending by 8% in 2015 to take a 26% market share, figures from the Building Societies Association have found.
Building societies upped gross mortgage lending by 8% in 2015 to take a 26% market share, figures from the Building Societies Association have found.
Lending by value reached £57bn, up from £52.7bn in 2014.
Loan volumes were steadier year-on-year, rising by 6% to 395,300 loans of which a third were to first-time buyers.
Paul Broadhead, head of mortgage policy at the BSA, said: “Competition in the mortgage market picked up in 2015 with the large banks demonstrating an increased appetite to lend.
“Despite this, building societies have continued to benefit from their ability to provide mortgages to consumers with a wide range of requirements, including first-time buyers, self-builders, shared owners and those needing mortgages later in life."
Net lending fell from £17.3bn in 2014 to £15.2bn in 2015, although societies still accounted for 45% of all net lending in the year.
Broadhead added: “Despite European and global uncertainty, consumer sentiment in the housing market remains strong and building societies will continue to have a compelling mortgage lending proposition during 2016.
“However, we do remain concerned about consumer affordability across all housing tenures due to the continued shortage of housing supply.
"We remain convinced that a healthy housing market offers consumers a choice of tenures, whether full or shared ownership, social housing or private rental and that public policy should support this.”
