The building society will offer its mortgage lending products through a number of estate agents, mortgage brokers and financial advisers, in addition to its current subsidiary.

Skipton has won numerous awards for its service so we wanted to extend this to Northern Ireland, said Paul Darwin, head of intermediary sales at Skipton. With a good supply of buyers and a plentiful stock of modern housing the market is strong – and should certainly remain so for the foreseeable future.

With an extensive knowledge of the Northern Irish market, Dave Forrest, Skipton’s Building Society’s intermediary sales manager, is expected to support the new move.