Editor's note: This brief was summarised by The Property AI Newsroom from a report by Mortgage Solutions. Read the original article for full details.

Shawbrook’s Loan Book Hits £20.1bn with Growth in Real Estate and BTL

Shawbrook’s loan book increased by 10% to £20.1bn over the six months to June 2026, according to the lender’s latest results. The growth was attributed to “selective origination” across its specialist lending segments, including real estate and buy-to-let (BTL) lending.

The real estate loan book rose by £300m to reach £7.9bn, making up 39% of Shawbrook’s total loan book. This included £5.1bn in buy-to-let business, £2.4bn in commercial investment loans, and £200m in bridging finance. The retail mortgage loan book stood at £6.5bn, representing 32% of the group’s total, and included £1.8bn in The Mortgage Lender’s BTL business, £1bn in TML’s owner-occupied business, and £1.1bn in Bluestone Mortgages’ owner-occupied business.

Shawbrook’s SME loan book grew by £400m, supported by the acquisition of ThinCats’ portfolio in the previous year. The development finance business accounted for £800m of the loan book. The consumer finance segment, mainly motor finance, was valued at £1bn, or 5% of the group’s total.

Technology and Efficiency

Shawbrook reported a focus on its scalable technology platform, enhanced by artificial intelligence (AI). The lender stated that AI-assisted underwriting in its real estate business aims to halve the time spent on underwriting tasks. For qualifying SME enquiries, Shawbrook is targeting same-day indication of terms, and for real estate portfolio management, it expects AI to reduce annual review turnaround times to less than a day.

The group’s underlying profit before tax was £195.5m, up from £168.6m the previous year. The statutory profit before tax was £194.6m, compared to £163.1m last year. Shawbrook also reported an improved underlying cost to income ratio of 36.4% in H1 2026, down from 40% a year earlier.

These developments may be of interest to UK letting agents and inventory clerks monitoring lender activity in the buy-to-let and real estate sectors, as well as the adoption of AI technology in property finance.