It is no surprise, when it comes to mortgages, banks simply prefer the predictable income of the regular nine-to-five worker. This lending culture has meant that contract workers and the self employed have always had to work harder than the employed to get on the property ladder.
There were almost 105,000 searches for self-employed mortgages last month, according to Twenty7Tec, a mortgage tech company. Demand for self-employed loans was the highest ever recorded in the month of January and marked a 19pc increase compared with the same month in 2022 and a 40pc jump compared with January 2021.
The company expects February to be another record-breaking month for self-employed mortgages, as sole traders and small business owners begin their search after filing their self-assessment tax return at the end of January.
This comes at a time when some lenders are increasingly quizzing owners of limited companies on how their business will afford inflated energy and running costs this year, while sole traders are being asked to reveal exactly how much they spend on electric, gas and other expenses.
How We Can Help
Our experienced brokers have worked tirelessly over the years to build relationships with a number of specialist lenders. We take the time to understand you and the way you work. This allows us to make your mortgage application appeal to underwriters.
Having a good relationship with lenders means we can communicate more effectively on your behalf and our team usually already knows what the underwriters are looking for.
A recent example of this was sourcing a competitive mortgage product for a company director, the mortgage was offered not on their salary or dividend payments but instead on the profit the company had made.
Get in Touch
If you have are self employed or a company director and would like to talk about mortgagers please get in touch with our Senior Mortgager Broker Danny O’Keeffe on 0208 364 3444 alternatively follow this link to book an appointment: https://mortgagesandinsurers.co.uk/get-a-quote/
BTL loan sizes ‘bounce back’ after mini-Budget
Loan sizes offered to landlords have “bounced back” after the market contraction following the mini-Budget, according to Mortgage Broker Tools.
The search criteria platform says buy-to-let affordability fell to its lowest level on record in November, with 19% of enquiries failing to find a lender able to provide the loan size requested.
But it adds in recent weeks, “competition has returned to the market”, with lenders cutting rates and offering more achievable stress testing. Last month, only 10% of BTL enquiries were deemed by lenders to be unaffordable.
House prices flat with sellers ‘realistic’ in Feb
Average house asking prices were virtually flat this month, posting the smallest-ever increase from January to February, according to data from Rightmove.
New seller home prices lifted by just £14 in the period to £362,452, with “sellers being more realistic on price” says the online property site’s latest House Price Index.
It was the first time prices were flat at this time of the year since the survey began in 2002. But adds that the number of potential house buyers contacting agents is up by 11% in the last two weeks compared with the same period in 2019’s “more normal market”.