Despite an effective closure of the housing market in the first quarter of last year when the nation locked down to fight the pandemic, the mutual achieved 9.4% year on year mortgage growth.

Faced with continued economic uncertainty and the challenges of national lockdown, the Society demonstrated robust operational and financial resilience, resulting in a set of positive financial results for the year, including surpassing £300m total assets for the first time its 55-year history.

Financial highlights include:

• Mortgage assets at the year-end of £253m (2019 : £231m)
• Shares and customer deposits increased to £275m (2019 : £245m)
• Profit for the year before tax was £578k (2019 : £249k)

No lockdown on lending

In line with its founding principles, the Society continued to help teachers onto the housing ladder throughout the pandemic, ensuring those whose collective efforts to safeguard the educational wellbeing of our children themselves received the support they needed. The mutual continued to provide mortgages at 90% LTV to teachers throughout, despite the majority of lenders withdrawing similar products.

In addition to mortgages for teachers, the Society continued lending to those with more complex borrowing needs through its Teachers for Intermediaries brand, facilitating home purchases in a challenging environment for borrowers with atypical needs. The mutual also continued to offer a range of popular holiday let mortgages, supporting increased consumer demand for domestic travel as a result of the pandemic.

As a result, the Society achieved 9.4% growth in its mortgage book supported by a 12.9% change in the funding balance. Consequently, the Society passed a significant milestone with total assets exceeding £300m for the first time in its 55 year history. Assets increased by 12% to £333m during the year (2019: £297m).

Supporting savers

Teachers Building Society also welcomed many new savers as members in 2020, including those looking for a safe haven for deposits during the coronavirus pandemic. Growing its savings membership with a number of best buy products created a net savings inflow for the Society during the period of £30m, a 210% increase year on year (2019: £10m).

Strong performance

Despite the challenges of operating in an unprecedented climate, the Society’s product and operating strategy resulted in an operating profit of £578k for the year, more than double the £249k reported in 2019. This can be attributed to improved net interest income driven by mortgage book growth, a substantial achievement given the economic circumstances. The Society’s gross capital ratio remained stable at 7.1%.

Simon Beresford, Chief Executive of Teachers Building Society, said:

“The positive determination of employees to adapt to working from the safety of home ensured the Society was able to continue supporting existing members and welcoming new members without interruption of service.

“Importantly, we ensured the teachers we were founded to serve continued to be able to borrow the funds needed to step onto the property ladder and benefit from exclusive savings rates. As a result, the Society has delivered a very strong set of results, surpassing an important milestone for total assets in the process.

“Our strategy for 2021 is to support even more teachers in taking their first steps on the property ladder, something we will achieve by welcoming more new savers and by expanding our mortgage lending to borrowers from other professions with more complex financial needs.”