Self employed fearful of mortgage rejection
Many self-employed individuals have not tried for a mortgage because of the assumption they would be rejected as self-employed individuals, according to new research from TML (The Mortgage Lender) (https://themortgagelender.com/).
Indeed, the research found that 30% said they’ve never applied for one because they didn’t think they would be approved. In addition to this, 26% said they heard it’s more challenging for self-employed people to get a mortgage.
We look at other reasons why self-employed people have not applied for a mortgage in the past.
36% said it’s because they had not built up their deposit yet.
17% said they’re waiting for interest rates to come down, making mortgage payments more affordable. 10% said they find the process too daunting.
15% said their business is less than two years old. Therefore, they didn’t have the necessary documentation to prove their income when applying. This highlights the importance of understanding specialist lenders and the opportunities they may provide customers, by assessing income in a different way to make mortgages more accessible to those with complex income structures.
How many do apply?
Self employed fearful of mortgage rejection
While 57% of self-employed people have applied for a mortgage and been successful, 15% of this group said they were not successful on their first attempt. A further, 4% revealed they applied in the past and have not yet been successful.
Of those who have been rejected for a mortgage previously, 38% said they were not approved due to volatile income. 28% said the lender they applied through calculated that they wouldn’t be able to make the repayments.
27% said they did not have the necessary documentation to prove their income. 11% said their mortgage rejection was based on missed or late payments. 11% said they had a default or a CCJ in the past six years. Another 5% were rejected because they were not registered to vote on the electoral roll.
Is it harder for the self employed to get a mortgage?
Self-employed applicants are often treated with stricter affordability assessments than those who are employed, mainly because they are considered to have more irregular or complex incomes and are therefore viewed as a greater risk to lenders. This in turn can make it trickier to obtain a mortgage.
Steve Griffiths, Chief Commercial Officer at TML commented: “Self-employed work is becoming an increasingly popular route. There are around 4.24 million people reporting to be self-employed in July 2023. However, it’s clear that some lenders, particularly on the high street, haven’t necessarily caught up with this trend and aren’t always equipped to deal with more complex incomes.
“It’s unfortunate that this is putting off so many self-employed workers from even applying when they could in fact be great candidates for a mortgage, especially when there are specialist lenders who are well-placed to support their property aspirations.
Can Jukes Estate Agents Harlow help?
“Whilst we cannot give financial advice, we can recommend superb mortgage brokers that we have worked closely with and know give superb customer service”. says co owner Geoff Flewers. He continues.. ” We are only a phone call away (01279 295524), and can put you in touch with brokers who specialise with the self employed.
In fact I have spoken to one today who says she has virtually a 100% success rate with getting mortgages for the self employed!