B&B’s main mortgage business has a 9 per cent rise in profit before tax as total lending increased by 12 per cent and loans to landlords rose to £12.5 billion.
Chief executive Steven Crawshaw warned that while some increase in arrears levels had been noticed over the year, a trend which began at the tail end of 2004, he did not expect any ‘material deterioration in credit conditions.’
He said: “There is definitely a slowdown in the market but we do not see that as preceding any crash either in credit terms or in terms of housing volumes crashing. We see it as a stabilising period.
“We are in a period of reduced activity and house price inflation but the quality of lending is supported by robust fundamentals.”
B&B continued with its faith in buy-to-let, which accounted for 62 per cent of the total book of new residential lending. Self-certified loans rose to 27 per cent from 20 per cent last year.
The Coventry Building Society has also announced its results for 2004 with gross lending of £2.2 billion and net lending of £409 million with a pre-tax profit of 7.2 per cent to a record £50.7 million.
Martin Ritchley, chief executive at Coventry, said: “It has been another successful year for Coventry. Our lending has been achieved in a housing market which has lost some of its momentum, reflecting the competitiveness of our mortgage products.”
Rob Clifford, managing director of Mortgageforce, said: “The cost of regulation and the significant downturn in the market was consolidated by the fact that many lenders managed to hit their mortgage lending targets by August, thanks mainly to a bumper Spring period.”
