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Mortgages for Self Employed Clients

Supporting self employed clients - from sole traders to company directors.

  • Affordability calculator
  • Residential lending criteria
  • Residential products

We understand that self employed clients don’t always fit into traditional lending boxes. That’s why we offer mortgage solutions through both our Standard Residential and Bespoke Residential product ranges - designed to reflect the realities of self employment, whether your client is a sole trader, company director, or equity partner.

Who qualifies as self employed?

We define self employed applicants as individuals who:

  • Are sole traders, partners in a business, or company directors with a shareholding of 25% or more
  • Are actively trading (evidenced by a recent business bank statement).

Criteria at a glance:

Criteria Standard Bespoke
Minimum trading period 3 years Less than 3 years may be considered
Income evidence Latest 2 years' SA302s + Tax Year Overviews + 1 month's business bank statement Discretionary income assessment beyond tax returns
Additional income considerations Not applicable May include net profit after tax, one-off adjustments, latest year only, minority shareholder dividends, recent status changes
Interest Only eligibility Not accepted Interest Only and Part & Part could be accepted on Bespoke

Why choose our Bespoke range?

Our Bespoke underwriting team takes a flexible, common-sense approach to income assessment. This allows us to:

  • Consider clients with less than 3 years’ trading history
  • Use the latest year’s income in isolation where justified
  • Accept net profit after tax and salary as assessable income
  • Include dividend income for minority shareholders
  • Support clients who’ve recently changed status or bought into a going concern.

Case studies:

See how we’ve supported self employed clients in securing the right mortgage solution for their needs.

Bespoke Residential case studies

  • One of the applicants has only recently become self employed; less than two years ago. Their company is in the same industry they had previously been employed in. With this employment history they wouldn’t have been able to secure the loan on standard terms.
  • When reviewing the case they were able to provide evidence that the company was performing well, even though it was relatively new. We therefore used one year’s finalised accounts and the latest year’s NPAT and salary for our income assessment to achieve the loan amount required.
  • The applicant’s company’s previous year’s profits were slightly lower than normal. With this recent dip in profits they wouldn’t have been able to secure the loan on standard terms.
  • When reviewing the case we were able to obtain evidence that the current year was on track to be equivalent to other normal years’ profits. The applicant was also able to give an acceptable reason for the one-off fall in profits.
  • We therefore used the latest year’s net profit after tax (NPAT) and salary for our income assessment to achieve the loan amount required.
  • The applicant had only recently qualified as a Barrister. Being self employed and receiving an income that grows year on year, on standard terms the average income wouldn’t be enough to secure the loan they wanted.
  • When reviewing the case we were able to use latest year’s profit figure in isolation for our income assessment, alongside other supporting documents which showed that this level of profit would be ongoing.
  • Also, due to the high quality of the application as a whole we were able to apply a loan to income multiple of 5x their latest year's profit figure. A multiple not available on standard terms.
  • The applicant had been an employee of a limited liability partnership (LLP) for a few years and around 18 months ago became a self employed partner in the firm. The LLP was well established and profitable.
  • When reviewing the case we agreed to include the applicant’s profit share as we received confirmation from the finance director of the previous and expected earnings, along with a P60 to evidence the level of earnings before becoming an equity partner.
  • The applicant was about to become a partner in a GP practice. They have been employed with the practice for over three years and were guaranteed at least their basic salary in the first year. After that they would receive profit share.
  • Although the applicant was newly self employed, we were happy to proceed with the request based on the history of employment in the practice.

Next steps?

Explore our full Residential lending criteria

To check your client's suitability for our products, take a look at our lending criteria

Lending Criteria

Search our Residential products

To see all our current rates visit our Residential products page

Residential Products

Decide how to proceed

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