Halifax still offering competitively priced self-employed mortgages

by Aaron Strutt

Oct 20 2020

Halifax for Intermediaries is still offering generous mortgages and low rates to self-employed borrowers providing their income has not been badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic. 

Halifax classes a customer as self-employed if they have a shareholding of 25% or more in a company, and when joint applicants own 25% or more between them.

The bank also classes sub-contractors who derive their income from more than one contract as self-employed, as well as franchise owners, and those with a partnership interest in a business that is not Pay-As-You-Earn irrespective of the percentage shareholding.  

Halifax typically requests business owners to provide their latest two full years trading figures. Where an applicant has been trading for less than two years, but for at least one full year, the application can be considered, and accounts are the bank's preferred method of income verification. Additional information may be required to support any application. 

Aaron Strutt, product director at Trinity Financial, says: "Some of the biggest banks and building societies have been taking a much firmer stance on self-employed borrowers requesting additional documentation. At the moment, it is not unusual for business owners to be referred to manual underwriting while employed borrowers are not; some lenders are also capping the amount they can borrow. 

"We are still helping self-employed borrowers to secure mortgages, but the application process is not as quick as normal. One lender is even asking self-employed borrowers whose income has not reduced because of the virus to explain why as part of its plausibility checks." 

Call Trinity Financial on 020 7016 0790 to secure a self-employed mortgage or book a consultation