The Coventry Building Society has posted a strong set of results for 2012.

Pre-tax profits grew by 49% to £88.5 million.

Mortgage assets increased by £2.8 billion to £22.0 billion. New mortgage lending increased by 29% to £5.1 billion, while net mortgage lending was £2.3 billion, equivalent to 31% of all net mortgage lending in the UK.

Savings balances increased by £1.1 billion to £20.1 billion.

David Stewart, the Coventry’s chief executive, said its gross mortgage advances represents a market share that is four times greater than at the onset of the credit crisis in 2007.

He said: “This performance resulted in growth of mortgage balances of £2.8 billion or 15%. Once the impact of those assets acquired from the UK businesses of the Bank of Ireland is excluded, this was equivalent to 31% of all net mortgage lending in the UK and means that Coventry has accounted for over 23% of UK net mortgage lending since the start of 2010.

“In June 2012, we completed the purchase of a £0.5 billion loan book comprising UK buy-to-let mortgages originated by Bank of Ireland’s UK businesses. The book is seasoned, and performing well, with an average indexed loan to value ratio of 54%.”

At 31 December 2012, 0.72% of mortgage balances were 2.5% or more in arrears, and impairment charges totalled £9.6 million from a loan book of £22.0 billion.