Strong half year performance by Connells owner
The Skipton Group , which includes the Skipton Building Society and the UK's largest estate agency Connells, performed strongly in the first half of 2023.
Group profit before tax was £148.9 million from £160m a year earlier.
Connells, which has offices across the West Midlands, maintained its market share and saw an improvement in transaction values and volumes from the first to the second quarter.
Mortgage advances were up 27 per cent year on year to £3.4 billion and balances grew 6.8 per cent to £27.2bn.
Nearly 9,000 first-time buyers were helped, up 43 per cent.
Building society membership grew of 3.1 per cent to over 1.17 million and savings balances were up 5.2 per cent to £23.6bn.
Skipton Building Society's pre-tax profit increased to £127.8m from £101.9m.
Stuart Haire, Skipton Group chief executive, said: "We are making good progress in both growth and transformation initiatives across our three strategic priorities - Helping More People Have a Home; Making Money Work Harder; and Making Membership Matter.
"We have an ambition to make a positive impact through buying and selling homes with our estate agencies and by financing homes through our home financing business, in order to tackle the UK's housing crisis by enabling more first-time buyers to realise their homeownership aspirations without access to 'the bank of Mum and Dad'.
"The launch of our life-changing Track Record mortgage enables people trapped in rental cycles to access the property ladder for the first time, via the only deposit-free 100 per cent mortgage. Not only does this help people realise their home-ownership aspirations, they are saving money too compared to more expensive rental payments. The value of this product has been clearly demonstrated, with applications totalling over £28m since its launch in May."
