Santander mortgage lending down 2 per cent in 2011.

It has been revealed that gross Santander mortgage lending for 2011 totaled £23.7 billion, which was a 2 per cent drop on the £24.2 billion lent by the bank in 2010. The lender recovered from a weak start to 2011, when it lent just £9.7 in the period up to the end of Q2. The second half of the year saw improvement when a record gross lending of £14 billion was made, which was a 44 per cent increase on the earlier figure.

While gross Santander mortgage lending figures showed a slight drop in 2011 the lender’s net mortgage lending fell by a huge 80 per cent from £5.5 billion in 2010 to just £1.1 billion in 2011. On new mortgage products Santander’s average LTV was 65 per cent in 2011, while the average LTV deals already on its books was 52 per cent, both measures remained broadly stable throughout 2011. The bank’s trading profit after tax was £1.5 billion in 2011 which was down 6 per cent on the previous year, this drop has been attributed to higher regulatory and liquidity costs.

Ana Botin, chief executive officer of Santander mortgage UK, said that Santander had managed to deliver a solid performance in 2011 despite challenging market conditions. She added that the results demonstrated the robust nature of their business with both strong growth in SME lending and the established market positions in mortgages and savings being maintained.