Massive rise in mortgage lending

Nationwide, the UK's largest building society, noted in a press release in May that net annual mortgage lending has gone up 92.7% to £10.6bn. However they did add some negative news to this that the recent spate of interest rises had started to stem the increase. Differing rate increase but the same overall theme has also been seen by other major players such as Northern Rock, Abbey, Mortgage Express and Barclays.

It said the four rate rises since August 2006 were having an impact on the housing market and would see a reduction/ cooling in the second half of 2007.

Nationwide reported 17% growth in pre-tax profits to £652m up to 4/04/2007, bolstered by the continued strength in lending, alongside good performance in its credit cards and current account offerings.