Skipton Group, which includes Skipton Building Society and estate agent Connells Group, reported higher half-year profit, helped by an upturn in the UK housing market. 

The mutual posted profit before tax for the latest six-month period of £157 million, up 5% from £148.9 million a year ago. 

It said the results reflected “improvement in housing market activity offset by the effect of downward pressure on net interest income” at Skipton Building Society.

Skipton Building Society posted first-half profit before tax of £113 million, down from £127.8 million a year ago, largely due to a decline in net interest income. Skipton International reported profit before tax of £18.2 million, down from £24.5 million a year ago. 

Those declines were offset by Connells Group profit before tax of £20 million, compared to a £5.8 million loss a year ago. Connells, the UK’s biggest estate agent handling one in 10 of all home purchases in the country, said revenue rose 12% to £508 million from £453 million a year ago. It said the number of properties placed on the market increased by 15% compared to June 2023.

Overall group mortgage balances grew 10.8% year-on-year to £30.1 billion, while savings balances grew 16.6% year-on-year to £27.6 billion. 

“Despite market volatility, the housing market has seen some level of recovery in the first half of the year, and we continue to see greater volumes of activity (from enquiry to sale) year-on-year,” it said in a statement. 

Skipton said UK residential mortgages in arrears by three months or more are only 0.27% of mortgage accounts at the end of June 2024, well below the industry average of 0.94%.