Amongst these are Newcastle, Skipton, Leeds and Cheshire building societies.
Pre-tax, Leeds posted £63.2 million profits (up 10 per cent), Skipton posted £33.4 million profits (up 11.7 per cent) and Cheshire posted £8.1 million, with the Newcastle Group reporting an overall pre-tax increase in profits of 52 per cent or £17.6 million.
The Skipton Group saw £19 billion worth of applications across its businesses, including Skipton BS and Pink Home Loans.
Only 12 of Skipton's properties, 0.014 per cent of its accounts, were in possession at the end of December. Cheshire also saw a low rate of repossessions at 0.2 per cent, equating to 33 properties.
Skipton's chief executive, John Goodfellow said: "The vast majority of new mortgages are for values totaling less than 75 per cent, with only 6 per cent of loans advanced last year having LTVs above 90 per cent. The result is a strong, low-risk mortgage book which has grown 16 per cent year-on-year.”
Cheshire's chairman Robert Hough admitted that it had not escaped unscathed following the turbulence in the financial markets, especially after taking a £0.9 million hit resulting from costs it incurred with regards to a fraudulent commercial loan.
Leeds' chief executive, Ian Ward, said: “A lower level of redemptions was a key contributor and our ability to retain a greater percentage of existing borrowers is further testimony to our products and exceptional service.
“Over 94 per cent of our residential mortgage book is funded by our own members’ savings and this approach has kept us well insulated from the difficulties experienced by many of our competitors.
"Our mortgage book is of outstanding quality, with very low levels of arrears that are less than half of the industry benchmark. The average loan to value on new lending was only 53% in 2007 and is just 38% of current values on all our residential lending."
