A third of recent first-time buyers had to give up being self-employed to get a mortgage.
Nearly two thirds of self-employed people do not know how they will manage to buy their first home, a report published by Aldermore suggests.
The latest quarterly First-Time Buyer Index also showed a third of recent first-time buyers had to give up being self-employed had to give up being self-employed to get a mortgage.
The report outlines that most first-time buyers (46%) are keen to address rising house prices closely followed by an extension of the government’s help-to-buy scheme (39%) and simplified house buying process (30%).
Concern around mortgage affordability has seen a quarterly increase of 6% and the number of those joining their partner to fund their deposit has risen to 64%.
Charles McDowell (pictured), commercial director of mortgages at Aldermore, said: “First-time buyers are the driving force of the property market but our Index reveals just how hard it is for them to get on the ladder, even more so for those who are self-employed.
“Low levels of confidence amongst these groups will have ramifications further up the housing chain so it’s imperative that more is done to support both segments of our society, particularly with levels of self-employment continuing to rise in the UK.
“In the Housing White Paper the government stated it will focus on delivering the right type of housing in the right places through a new assessment of housing needs, and this is something we fully support to better provide for first time buyers.”
This comes after Aldermore reduced the number of years’ accounts a self-employed borrower must provide when applying for a residential mortgage from two years to one.
