Reporting strong financial results for 2025, Suffolk Building Society has announced that its mortgage book grew 10% to £813m in the year ending 30 November 2025, marking the first time it has exceeded £800m.
Mortgage advances accelerated significantly from £122m to £220m, with the number of completions up by 67% compared to the previous year – something the Society attributes to a combination of its flexible manual underwriting approach and its focus on niche lending areas.
The Society made a pre-tax profit of £1.4m, a figure in line with its forecast, demonstrating a robust and sustainable underlying profit.
Key numbers:
- Mortgage book: £813m (2024: £738m)
- Number of mortgage completions: 857 (2024: 512)
- Value of mortgage completions: £220m (2024: £122m), with an average loan size of £259k (2024: £241k)
- Regulatory capital: £47m (2024: £45m)
- Retail savings: £899m (2024: £817m)
- Pre-tax profit of £1.4m (2024: £2.2m). Lower profit before tax in 2025 reflects interest rate hedging in a volatile market. These short-term hedging losses are expected to reverse over the life of the mortgages being hedged.
A strengthened mortgage proposition
Continuing to focus on its niche offering helped the Society increase sales and retain business, with new criteria launched across first time buyers, intergenerational lending, later life lending, and expat mortgages.
The Society improved its criteria for first time buyers, including an increase to 90% LTV for Joint Borrower Sole Proprietor (JBSP), and 90% LTV on new build flats. The Society’s new ‘rental track record’ criteria change also allows buyers to borrow up to 5.49 times their income where they can evidence a history of rental payments.
Intergenerational lending proved extremely popular in 2025. Later life borrowers also benefitted from the removal of a minimum £20k income limit.
Changes such as increasing the expat resi LTV to 90%, and relaxing criteria around visa requirements for non-UK nationals were driven by ongoing dialogue with brokers about their customers’ needs.
Richard Norrington, CEO at Suffolk Building Society, said:
“Reaching £800m of mortgage assets is an important milestone in our ambitious plans to grow efficiently and sustainably, and a testament to the hard work and dedication of our teams across the Society.
“As borrowers’ needs become ever more complex, feedback from our intermediary partners continues to guide our specialist offering and will play a key role in our lending strategy going forward.”
Industry collaboration and recognition
The past year saw the Society receive several awards from the mortgage industry, including Financial Reporter Building Society of the Year, and it was also a finalist in the L&G Mortgage Club Awards for the category of Best Lender for Later Life Lending.
In addition, the Society was proud to sign the Mortgage Industry Mental Health Charter.
The Society also joined The Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA), represented by Head of Intermediaries, Charlotte Grimshaw, who was then co-opted to its leadership team.
A safe home for savers
Elsewhere in the business, the Society’s retail savings delivered another strong performance, growing by 10% to £899m, with 8,284 new savings accounts opened; reflecting the Society’s growing brand reach.
Three hundred and seventy of these savings accounts were opened at the Society’s new full-service branch in Felixstowe. A highlight of the year, this new branch opened in March and bucks the trend of branch closures by banks. Its popularity has already seen its opening hours extended to meet demand.
A new savings proposition was also launched for corporates and charities.
And safe homes for our communities
Community has always been at the heart of the Society’s values, and in 2025, it celebrated its 175-year history in a way that reflected its values and mission: with a volunteering and fundraising campaign ‘175 Good Deeds for Suffolk’.
Seventy-nine colleagues contributed 775 volunteer hours across a huge range of volunteering and fundraising activities, helping the Society donate over £50k through targeted initiatives that have a positive impact on the people of Suffolk.
Richard Norrington concluded:
“2025 was a year of celebration, led by our 175th anniversary and the opening of our new Felixstowe branch – both strong reminders of our history, our community role, and our future focus.
“Following an award-winning year that saw us meet our financial goals, the Society is well-positioned for sustainable growth in the year ahead. We have a strong mortgage pipeline, excellent intermediary relationships, ten high street branches, and solid savings and mortgage offerings.”
