Kent Reliance will accept residential mortgage applications from self-employed applicants with 12 months’ accounts.
Kent Reliance will accept residential mortgage applications from self-employed applicants with 12 months’ accounts.
Previously the specialist intermediary-only lender required 36 months of accounts, as most lenders require a 2 or 3-year track record of self-employed earnings.
Adrian Moloney, director of sales at Kent Reliance for Intermediaries, said: “The self-employed are making up an increasing proportion of the modern workforce.
“Despite the financial success of many within this group, this hasn’t yet been reflected in the mortgage market. We are looking to change this, supporting self-employed professionals, and their brokers looking to place these cases.
“We’ve had feedback from brokers that they find these type of loans especially hard to process, so we are widening our criteria to increase our flexibility in this market, which will aid both distributors and their clients. These changes support our commitment to be a specialist, personal and flexible lender for those who are not effectively served by mainstream providers.”
Self-employed professionals made up 15% of the UK’s workforce as of Q3 2015 based on the Bank of England’s quarterly bulletin, as since 2008 the UK has welcomed 700,000 new self-employed professionals.
Applicants need to hold a professional qualification to be eligible, with accepted professions including doctors, lawyers and accountants.
Self-employed borrowers must comply with the following criteria: Income must be based on accounts prepared by an accountant, a projection for second year income must be provided, the applicant must have a minimum of 12 months’ track record in the same sector which should be evidenced by previous pay as you earn income, three months of personal and business bank statements must be provided and income must be verified by an accountant’s reference.
