“There has been a slowdown in mortgage market activity this year as higher interest rates have put a strain on affordability,” reports the BSA Property Tracker.  

But it points out that this figure is 26% market share of all UK home loan lending.  

It adds that mutuals lifted their balances by £6.1bn between January and September, while the mortgage balances at rival lenders fell by £4.5bn, “as borrowers repaid more than these mortgage providers lent out in the period”.  

The survey adds that building societies approved 273,000 mortgages in the first nine months of the year, accounting for 35% of all approvals across the market.  

Of this total, 70,333 were first-time buyer home loans, which make up 38% of total building society lending.  

The Building Societies Association represents all 42 building societies, and seven large credit unions, who serve around 26 million consumers across and have total assets of over £500bn.