TL;DR: Yes, you can get a mortgage if you’re self-employed.
Lenders assess your income differently from PAYE employees, usually looking at tax returns and accounts rather than payslips. Most want two or three years of trading history, though some will consider one year.
A specialist mortgage broker can match you with lenders who understand how self-employed income works.
Yes, you can get a mortgage if you’re self-employed. Lenders assess your income using tax returns and business accounts rather than payslips, but the process works the same way as any other mortgage application.
Yet many self-employed people put off applying because they assume the banks will say no, or because a high street lender already has.
If that sounds familiar, you’re in good company. According to ONS data published in December 2024, there are approximately 4.38 million self-employed workers in the UK, and a significant number of them have perfectly good cases that mainstream lenders simply aren’t set up to handle.
Research from specialist lender Shawbrook, published in October 2025, found that 24% of self-employed applicants had at least one mortgage application declined in the past year – down from 45% the year before, but still a meaningful barrier.
Standard mortgage processes were designed around PAYE employees with a payslip to show. When your earnings come from a business you own, proving what you actually take home requires a different approach.
Most lenders are well equipped to deal with this. You just need to know which ones to approach and how to present your situation clearly.
By the end of this guide, you’ll understand how lenders view self-employed income, what paperwork you need to gather, and why the right broker makes a real difference to your outcome.
Who Is Classed as Self-Employed for a Mortgage?
Lenders broadly consider you self-employed if you own 20–25% or more of a business, or if you work for yourself in any capacity. This definition is consistent across most mainstream and specialist lenders, though individual criteria do vary.
This covers:
- Sole traders – running a business in your own name
- Limited company directors – where you own a significant share
- Contractors – working on fixed-term contracts, often through a limited company or umbrella company
- CIS (Construction Industry Scheme) subcontractors – a category with its own mortgage rules
- Freelancers and consultants – regardless of whether they invoice through a company or personally
- Partnership members – assessed on their share of profits
Each of these structures is assessed differently, which is one reason self-employed mortgage applications benefit from specialist knowledge. A contractor in IT is handled very differently from a sole trader plumber, even if their incomes are similar.
How Do Lenders Assess Self-Employed Income?
This is where things get more involved.
Unlike a PAYE employee, you don’t have monthly payslips showing a consistent gross salary. Lenders instead look at your tax returns and accounts to work out what your income is, and the method they use depends on how your business is structured.
Sole Traders and Partnerships
If you’re a sole trader, lenders base their assessment on your net profit – your income after allowable business expenses, not your turnover. This is one of the most common points of confusion for self-employed applicants.
If your business turns over £90,000 but you legitimately claim £40,000 in expenses, the lender works from £50,000, regardless of what the business actually took in.
This matters if you’ve been reducing profits to lower your tax bill. It’s a sensible way to run a business, but it can reduce the amount a lender will consider for affordability purposes.
If you’re thinking about getting a mortgage in the next couple of years, it’s worth discussing this balance with your accountant well in advance.
Most lenders want to see two to three years of accounts. Some will average those figures, others will use the most recent year, or the lower of the two if there’s been a drop in profits.
Limited Company Directors
If you operate through a limited company, lenders generally consider your salary plus any dividends you’ve drawn. A director taking a £13,000 salary and £37,000 in dividends would be assessed on £50,000 of income.
Some specialist lenders go further and consider retained profits – money left inside the business rather than drawn as salary or dividends.
Research from Legal & General Mortgage Services found that six of the eight most common income searches on their broker platform in a recent 90-day period were for self-employed applicants, with limited company directors the most searched type.
This can significantly increase your borrowing potential if you tend to leave funds in the company for cash-flow purposes. Not every lender does this, which is why knowing where to apply matters.
Contractors and Day Rate Workers
Contractors often receive more favourable treatment than they expect.
Rather than relying on company accounts, many lenders calculate income based on your day rate. A contractor working 46 weeks a year at £450 per day, five days a week, could be assessed on approximately £103,500 of annual income.
This method suits IT, engineering, finance, and other professional sector contractors well. You’ll generally need to show a current contract and a reasonable track record of renewals, but it’s a far more straightforward route than the accounts-based approach, especially with a shorter trading history.
CIS Subcontractors
If you work under the Construction Industry Scheme, there’s a specific type of mortgage available to you. CIS mortgages are calculated using your gross CIS income – the figure before the 20% tax deduction – rather than the net figure that appears on your SA302.
This distinction can make a substantial difference to what you can borrow, and it’s something a specialist broker will know how to handle correctly.
What Documents Will You Need?
Gathering the right paperwork before you apply is one of the most useful things you can do. Delays caused by missing documents are common and can cause real problems if you’re working to a deadline.
Key Paperwork Checklist
- SA302 tax calculations and tax year overviews from HMRC, covering the last two or three years. These confirm your declared income to the lender.
- Certified company accounts, prepared by a qualified accountant. Lenders look for recognised professional qualifications such as ACCA, ICAEW, or CIMA. An unqualified bookkeeper’s figures won’t carry the same weight.
- Business and personal bank statements, usually for the last three to six months. Most lenders specify three months as a minimum, though some ask for six. Keep these accounts separate if at all possible – lenders find mixed accounts harder to assess, and it can raise unnecessary questions.
- Current contracts or letters of engagement, relevant for contractors and freelancers to show that income will continue.
- Proof of identity and address, as required for any mortgage application.
If you work under CIS, you’ll also need your CIS statements from your contractor, showing your gross pay and the deductions made.
How Much Can a Self-Employed Person Borrow on a Mortgage?
Self-employed applicants can borrow broadly the same multiples as employed people.
Most lenders will offer between four and 4.5 times your annual income as a starting point, subject to affordability checks. Some specialist lenders will go to five times or higher for professionals with strong earnings and a clean credit profile.
If your income is assessed at £100,000, you might borrow between £400,000 and £500,000 as a starting point. Lenders will also need to consider any outstanding debts, financial commitments, and your monthly expenditure as part of an affordability stress test.
Your deposit plays a role too.
Having a deposit of 15–20% opens up considerably more lender options and generally better rates. Some lenders ask self-employed applicants for slightly larger deposits because of income variability, though this isn’t universal. A 95% mortgage is possible with some lenders, but the smaller your deposit, the fewer your choices.
Lenders also apply a stress test to check you could still afford the mortgage if interest rates rose. This applies to all borrowers, but it’s worth factoring into your planning when working out how much you want to borrow.
The market for self-employed mortgage lending is growing: specialist lender Together forecasts lending to self-employed applicants will rise by 67% over the next five years, from £20.9 billion in 2023 to £34.8 billion by 2029.
How Can I Improve My Chances of Getting a Self-Employed Mortgage?
You don’t need to leave your application to chance.
There are practical steps you can take in the months before applying that will meaningfully improve your position.
Sort Your Credit Profile
Your credit history matters just as much for self-employed applicants as for anyone else.
Get a copy of your credit report well before you apply, ideally six months ahead, and check it carefully. Small issues like a missed mobile phone payment or an old address that hasn’t been updated can create unnecessary friction with lenders.
Make sure you’re on the electoral roll at your current address. This helps lenders confirm your identity and affects how credit scoring systems view you.
Also avoid applying for any new credit in the three to six months before your mortgage application. Shawbrook’s 2025 research found that 34% of self-employed applicants who were declined cited an insufficient credit score as the reason – making this the single most common cause of rejection.
Timing Your Application
Think carefully about when you apply. If your business has recently had a difficult year followed by a strong recovery, applying during that recovery period gives you the most recent, positive figures to present.
Applying just after an unusually low-profit year can result in a lower assessment, even if the business is performing well now.
If you’ve recently changed your business structure, moving from sole trader to limited company for example, some lenders will want to see trading history in the new structure before they’ll lend. A specialist broker will know which lenders are more flexible in these situations.
It’s also worth having a conversation with your accountant before you apply.
The decisions you’ve made to manage your tax position may have reduced your declared income more than you realise, and there may be adjustments worth considering going forward.
Read more: How to get mortgage ready
Which Lenders Offer Mortgages for the Self-Employed?
High street banks prefer to process large volumes of straightforward applications.
Their systems work well for PAYE employees but they’re less suited to the nuances of self-employed income. That doesn’t mean you’ll never get a mortgage from a high street lender. It means the options available to you are wider when you look beyond them.
Specialist lenders have underwriters who are used to reading business accounts, understanding director loan accounts, and assessing day rate contractors.
Some have built specific products for self-employed applicants, and a number will consider one year of trading history where mainstream lenders insist on two or three.
Our research has found that over 35 lenders currently accept applications from sole traders and directors with as little as one year of accounts.
Access to this broader market is one of the main reasons self-employed people benefit from using a whole-of-market mortgage broker.
Why Should I Use a Mortgage Broker as a Self-Employed Applicant?
A broker who regularly works with self-employed clients brings two things you can’t easily replicate on your own: lender knowledge and application experience.
They know which lenders consider retained profits, which favour contractors on day rate calculations, and which are most flexible about recently incorporated businesses.
That knowledge can save you from applying to lenders who are unlikely to accept you, and that matters, because declined applications leave a footprint on your credit file.
Around a third of UK mortgage lenders only deal through brokers and cannot be approached directly – meaning that without a broker, self-employed applicants are effectively cut off from part of the market altogether.
Beyond lender matching, a good broker helps you present your application clearly.
For self-employed cases, that often means packaging your accounts and income evidence in a way that makes sense to the lender’s underwriter. Applications that lenders decline on their own are sometimes approved when a broker has put them together properly.
Respect Mortgages works with an independent, whole-of-market broker with over 45 years of experience in the mortgage industry. If you’d like to understand your options without any obligation, we can arrange an introduction.
Next Steps
Being self-employed doesn’t limit your mortgage options as much as many people assume. The process is more involved than applying with a payslip, but with the right preparation and the right people helping you, it’s entirely manageable.
Start by getting your accounts and tax returns in order. Check your credit report. Think about the deposit you have available. Then speak with a specialist broker who can review your situation and tell you exactly where you stand.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, though your options will be more limited than with two or three years of accounts. Some specialist lenders will consider applications after one year of trading, particularly if you have a strong deposit, a good credit history, and evidence that your income is sustainable. Working with a specialist broker is usually the most effective way to find these lenders.
It depends on your business structure. Sole traders are assessed on their net profit after expenses. Limited company directors are usually assessed on salary plus dividends. Contractors may be assessed on their day rate. Each method is different, which is why lenders’ treatment of self-employed income varies considerably.
Not necessarily. The rate you’re offered depends on your loan-to-value ratio, credit history, and the lender you use, not simply your employment status. A self-employed applicant with a 25% deposit and a clean credit file can access the same competitive rates as an employed applicant in a similar position.
Lenders take different approaches. Some use an average of your last two or three years’ income. Others use the most recent year’s figures, or the lower year if there’s been a significant drop. If your income dipped and has since recovered, the timing of your application matters, and a broker can advise on when to apply for the strongest result.
Most lenders require accounts prepared by an accountant who holds a recognised professional qualification, such as ACCA, ICAEW, or CIMA. If your accounts have been prepared by someone without those qualifications, or you’ve filed your own self-assessment returns, you may need to get formal accounts produced before you apply.
Some specialist lenders do consider retained profits, which can increase your assessed income if you leave money in your business rather than drawing it all as salary or dividends. Not every lender takes this approach, so it’s worth working with a broker who knows which ones do.
No. Self-cert mortgages, which allowed borrowers to declare their own income without providing proof, were banned by the financial regulator following widespread misuse and have not been available since 2011. All regulated mortgage lenders must now verify income properly. You will need to provide documented evidence of your earnings, regardless of which lender you use.
