Wednesday 24 August 2016 6:12 pm

OneSavings Bank chief executive explains why his business is safe as houses

Despite worries the referendum would wobble housing demand, the boss of OneSavings Bank has found particular niches of the market to be quite lucrative.

In particular, Andy Golding told City A.M. the bank was focusing on the "normal stock" side of the market in London – as opposed to the "high-end, crazy value stuff" – which was "still very sought after, with lots of demand both from the purchaser perspective at the lower end but obviously from a rental perspective as well because we have a bit of a housing shortage…the population continues to grow faster than the number of roofs we build and people need somewhere to live."

Golding added there were plans to launch a new "fee-free portfolio buy-to-let remortgage product" to tap into the market further.

"The legal fees…and valuation fees are quite expensive. If we can package that up using our buying power and pass that on to the end borrower…I think that will help landlords who want to move their portfolio but have got to stump up some costs to do it," Golding said.

However, even Golding feels London's high prices are not here to stay, remarking: "I think prices will cool a little bit, particular at the upper end in London, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. I think it might give wages a bit of a chance to catch up."

Earlier this morning, the bank revealed its statutory pre-tax profit grew from £46.6m to £100m for the first half of 2016. The specialist lender also opted to grow its interim dividend from 2.0p to 2.9p per share.

Golding said he was "very pleased" with the figures, particularly since the bank had needed to absorb the new bank corporation tax surcharge.

There may also be some more acquisitions for the company down the road.

"We have a track record of buying stuff," Golding said, but added: "We're quite tight on price so we bid on a lot more things than we win, because we're quite picky about our return hurdle."

Shares in the bank, which launched on the London Stock exchange in 2014, closed up 16.9 per cent at 277.3p.

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