Types of borrower

Getting you started: Advising you on your mortgage options

Our goal is to ensure you understand the mortgage application process and the types of financing options available to you. Whether you’re a first-time home buyer in the UK or have been through the process before we can help. We will prepare an analysis of your mortgage options, which might include multiple scenarios. In all cases, you will get to see the best market options in the variable and fixed mortgage duration ranges.

We use the report to guide you through your options and find the best mortgage to suit your circumstances. Once a decision is made on the best option, you will then receive a detailed key facts document for that mortgage product and a suitability report which explains the rationale for our advice.

View an example of one of our client reports.

Expat mortgages

Mortgages are available for British expats who want to purchase a UK property.

A mortgage adviser will conduct the research and establish the relevant factors, agree upon a set of search criteria with you and then conduct a search of the market to find you the best mortgage.

Applying for a UK mortgage as a foreign national

There are many factors that affect your ability to obtain a mortgage as a foreign national. Mike Abbot, our director, highlights some of the key issues:

Contractor mortgages

Most lenders in the UK consider the income earned by a contractor to be the salary and/or dividends they pay themselves during the tax year. In most cases, this income is unlikely to exceed the higher rate tax threshold.

Those contractors whose gross turnover to company exceeds this amount will find themselves facing a cap on their mortgage borrowing. We have arrangements with a number of lenders, allowing us to consider other aspects of your income picture. By doing this, contractors can be placed on a similar footing to an employed borrower.

We will allocate a mortgage adviser to you to conduct the research. They will establish the relevant factors, agree upon a set of search criteria with you and then conduct a search of the market to find you the best mortgage.

Self-employed mortgages

The self-employed borrower is perhaps one of the more complex types of borrower, simply because there are so many variants of self-employment.

A director of his own company who owns more than 20% of his business is self-employed and treated very much the same as a sole trader and a member of a limited liability partnership or other partnership. To successfully advise self-employed borrowers in their loan applications, we need to have a detailed understanding of the structure of earnings and historical tax records.

Director mortgages

UK company directors applying for mortgages encounter many of the same issues that self-employed individuals face with their applications. It’s important that there is a good understanding of the individual’s historical personal earnings and those earnings still endowed in the retained earnings.

Shareholding structures need to be clearly understood, particularly where more than one member of the household is a director. It can be difficult to get the case agreed if changes are made to corporate structures shortly before a mortgage application. We advise directors making changes to their corporate structures (when a mortgage is on the horizon) to speak to us sooner rather than later.

We use the following approach to source the best mortgage for company directors:

• Understand the factors relevant to the borrower
• Agree on the criteria of the transaction
• Research the best deals in the market that meet these criteria

We will allocate a mortgage adviser to you to conduct the research. They will establish the relevant factors, agree upon a set of search criteria with you and then conduct a search of the market to find you the best mortgage.

Foreign national mortgages

Every lender in the UK has different criteria for non-UK nationals when it comes to offering mortgages. This can be a minefield for foreign nationals and can result in credit scores being mounted up with the wrong banks and damage to the credit score profile.

More than 90% of our clients are foreign nationals and we regard ourselves as specialists in this area. We understand the specific rules each lender has for visa type, time in the UK, time remaining on visa and so forth.

We would encourage clients who are foreign nationals to speak to us before approaching banks directly.

First-time buyer mortgages

Residential mortgages are available to first-time buyers who want to purchase a UK house in which they and their family intend to live. These are by far the most popular and widely offered mortgages in the market.

Remortgages

Remortgages occur when your existing mortgage deal expires or if you want to move from one provider or deal to another.

How much you can borrow?

Our approach

The advice that you receive

We will advise you in the form of a written report, which will set out the various options available to you.

View an example of one of our client reports..

Our research models

We have two models for our mortgage research:

1. Standard cases

   "Standard" cases are classified as those cases where:

   • You (as the borrower) have Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) in the UK or possess a British or EEA passport
   • You are employed or, if self-employed, have two years’ tax returns that fit the borrowing requirement
   • The loan-to-value (the mortgage as a percent of the property value) is 80% or less

   Your circumstances are likely to fall within the lending policy of most lenders; this allows us to conduct our research without needing to make special arrangements with any lender.

   We will provide you with a range of deals that best meet your criteria, advising you on your best options going forward.

2. Non-standard cases

   "Non-standard" cases are those cases where:

   • You (as the borrower) are not a British passport holder and do not hold ILR
   • Your earnings cannot be backed up by two years' P60 employment income in the UK
   • The proposed mortgage amount exceeds your annual employment income
   • You are a contractor using a limited company and/or umbrella company structure
   • The loan-to-value (the mortgage as a percent of the property value) is more than 80%
   • You are purchasing a shared ownership property
   • The proposed mortgage is greater than £1,000,000
   • You are not a resident in the UK

   The "non-standard" route is followed where a case falls outside of standard lending policy. In these instances, we are required to spend additional time researching your case as well as time to argue it with underwriters.

   Although our research is chargeable, we try to ensure that we don’t do chargeable work if the result is unlikely to yield anything. If we believe your mortgage will not be approved at this time, we will inform you at no charge and suggest that the research be performed at a later stage. In some cases, we cannot confirm whether the mortgage will be approved without doing the research. In these cases, we will give you the option to proceed or not before we begin researching.