Growth for building societies in home loan market

Net advances were £1,700 million in June 2003, up from £1,061 million in June 2002.

Approvals (loans agreed, but not yet made) increased to £3,453 million in June 2003, from £2,927 million in June 2002.

In the savings market, building societies had net inflows of £65 million in June 2003, down from £865 million in June 2002.

Building society net receipts into cash ISAs were £250 million for June 2003.

Commenting on the mortgage market, Adrian Coles, Director-General of The Building Societies Association said:

“Another highly successful month for building societies. Competitive products mean that customers are turning to building societies in large numbers, increasing market share sharply over the last few months.

On the savings side, Mr Coles said:

“Competition from National Savings continues to have an impact on net inflows. This combined with the impact of paying for holidays and possible signs of recovery in the stock market has caused building society inflows to fall to a low level.”