Abbey set to overtake Halifax as UK’s largest mortgage lender
July 29, 2008
Abbey now writes one in three new mortgages in the UK, it has revealed, which puts them ahead of Halifax.
Abbeys total share in new lending rose by 35% in the three months until the end of June. This is mainly due. This is mainly due to other lenders withdrawing from the market due to the credit crisis.
Santander, who own Abbey, have announced plans to but Alliance and Leicester. The deal could go through as early as October and would add another 250 branches to the group in the UK. The takeover will also give another 5 million personal customers to the group, which could boost its share in the mortgage market even more.
Halifax is currently the largest mortgage lender in existing and new mortgages (gross market) and in housing stock. The Halifax group said last month that it writes about one in five new mortgages and only expects modest growth in this area. This now puts Abbey in line to take a share of new mortgages ahead of Halifax because of Northern Rock problems and other mortgage firms who have collapsed due to the credit crisis.
The Santander group has admitted that Abbeys growth, which is more than double what it was this time last year, was “in part impacted by the withdrawal of other providers in the market”, and they also said that they were expecting a lower share in the remaining part of the year.
Chief executive of Abbey Antonio Harto - Osoario keenly pointed out that its lending is restricted to the prime mortgage market and they will continue to focus on risk management.
He also said that in the six months to the end of June, Abbey has tightened its lending criteria and now only 1% of its new mortgage lending written above 90% loan to value.
Abbey has also reported pre-tax profits which were substantially ahead of last year, an increase of 20% to £485m during this period.
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