OneSavings Bank, the owner of Kent Reliance, grew underlying pre-tax profits by 36% to £64.6 million in the first half of the year.

The Chatham-based lender grew its loan book by 5% compared with the same time last year, according to its interim financial results.

This increased to an underlying loan book growth of 10% when excluding the impact of the sale of Rochester Financing No.1 plc, a debt issuing vehicle it sold to Morgan Stanley for £104 million in June.

Its expansion was put down to a 25% growth in organic business to £973 million and acquisitions worth £131 million.

Chief executive Andy Golding said the results had come despite increasing cash at its disposal as a safety measure ahead of the EU referendum.

The bank, which has become a specialist buy-to-let lender, has total assets worth £6.3 billion, up from £5.2 billion, with its net loan book worth £5.4 billion, up 17%.

Its success comes as it focuses lending on London and the South East, where the gap between supply and demand in the housing market is among the highest in the UK.

The bank, which floated on the London Stock Exchange’s junior market in 2014, has increased its interim dividend to 2.9p per share, up from 2p in the first six months of last year.

Mr Golding said the bank’s policy of low loan to value lending – as well as stress testing – protected the business against “significant market volatility”.

Less than 2% of its total loan book is secured on properties worth more than £2 million and with a loan to value ratio above 65%. Only 2.1% of its portfolio has payments overdue by more than three months.

He added: “Whilst there is uncertainty over house price inflation, particularly for higher value properties, the average loan size in our core businesses remains low at about £250,000 and we have limited exposure to high value properties.”

Mr Golding said it is too soon to predict the medium to long-term impact of Brexit on the UK economy.