Nationwide posts strongest results on record on the back of Britain’s booming property market
The world’s biggest building society, Nationwide, today posted its strongest financial results on record on the back of Britain’s booming property market.
The mortgage lender said its underlying profits had more than doubled from £790m for the financial year 2021 to £1,604bn for the financial year 2022.
Nationwide said it had performed well across its three core areas in capitalising on a “buoyant and competitive” mortgage market, whilst also attracting more current account holders and boosting deposits.
The firm said its overall mortgage lending to homebuyers and landlords grew “substantially” during the pandemic, as it said it had been able to capture a larger share of the mortgage market.
Nationwide’s chief financial officer Chris Rhodes said: “The combination of higher margins on mortgages, with growth in core products, has resulted in significantly higher income.”
Company chairman Kevin Parry said the 138-year-old company had “emerged from two years of a pandemic with a thriving membership, strong profitability, and financial strength”.
The Nationwide chairman added that the building society current financial position will put it in a position of “good stead” to face the current climate of “geopolitical uncertainties” posed by the War in Ukraine.
The Swindon headquartered firm said high inflation, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, is likely to “exert a significant drag on the economy in the near term.”
However, the mutual said housing activity in the UK market remains higher than pre-pandemic levels, with prices increasing at a double-digit annual rate in the first few months of 2022.
Looking ahead, the building society noted that TSB chief executive Debbie Crosbie is set to take over from Joe Garner as head of Nationwide on 2 June.