Pre-tax profits more than doubled at the parent company of Kent Reliance bank last year as confidence returned to lenders, particularly in the property market.

OneSavings Bank, which floated on the stock market last year, revealed underlying profits before tax grew to £69.7 million over the last 12 months, up from £30 million a year earlier.

The company’s loan book – mainly in the housing market – grew by 29% to £3.9 billion, up from £3 billion, having attracted £1.5 billion of new business. The bank welcomed 27,000 new savings customers last year.

Lending for buy-to-let and small and medium-sized businesses are the group’s largest market, making up 52% of the gross loan book.

Residential mortgages were worth 45% of the company’s income while personal loans stood at 3% at the end of last year.

The lender, which was formed after Chatham-based Kent Reliance ran into financial difficulties, has also kept a tight hold on costs.

It has recorded only 24 cases of arrears over a three-month period out of 14,000 loans worth £2.7 billion since it launched in February 2011.

Publishing its preliminary results for last year, bosses were also keen to highlight the awards won by the bank, including What Mortgage Best Buy-to-Let Lender 2014 and Which?’s Best Customer Service in the UK in 2014 for Kent Reliance.

The board has recommended a 3.9p a share dividend for shareholders, set for approval later this year.

OneSavings Bank chief executive Andy Golding said: “We experienced strong growth in profitability across all of our business segments whilst maintaining tight control on costs and excellent levels of customer service.

“Looking forward we believe the macroeconomic backdrop remains supportive for the overall housing market and we expect to see a continuation of the positive trends we experienced in our target markets during 2014.

“Whilst the broader mortgage market has seen increased levels of competition we remain confident in the outlook for our business and anticipate demand will remain strong as we continue to differentiate ourselves from the competition through the identification of high value, underserved markets.”