Frequently Asked Questions

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Lenders use their own affordability assessments to calculate how much they will allow you to borrow.

The affordability calculations are based on your income, outgoings, dependants, the mortgage term, and the deposit.

Your individual circumstances could change who is the best lender for you. If you receive overtime, commission, or bonuses then a certain lender could be better than another.

If you are looking at buying a property as a First Time Buyer or Home Mover then the standard minimum deposit you would need would be 5% of the purchase price.

Although, there are limited products that can offer a 0% deposit requirement on Shared Ownership Properties.

The more deposit you are able to put towards the purchase the better the deal the lender will be willing to offer to you.

Lenders work on Loan To Value (LTV), which is how much are you looking to borrow against the value of the property. The lower the Loan to Value, the lower the rate they will offer. Products are usually tiered in 5% increments.

If you are looking for a Buy to Let investment property then the minimum deposit would be 15%, but most lenders will require a 25% deposit.

Some Buy to Let mortgages are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority 

A difficult question to answer as your individual circumstances and your own comfortable monthly budget will need to be looked at.

The monthly payment will depend on the amount of mortgage that you are taking out, the mortgage term, the amount of deposit you are putting down, the type of deal you are taking (fixed rate, tracker rate etc) and credit history. 

Lenders can consider mortgages if you have had bad credit. Lenders will look at the type of ‘adverse’ credit, late payments, defaults, County Court Judgements (CCJ), Debt Management Plan (DMP), IVA’s or Bankruptcy.

Lenders will consider the amount in pounds (£) the adverse is for, the amount of credit companies registering the adverse and when was it registered against you.

With late payments, defaults, DMP’s and CCJ’s lenders will look at the last 6 years credit history. If they are older than this then they are usually ignored.

IVA’s and Bankruptcy’s will need to be declared regardless to how long ago they were, but some lenders are able to accept these.

You will need to pass credit scoring and meet lenders criteria but there are specialist lenders that can accept bad credit.

Yes, you are still able to get a mortgage if you are a sole trader, in a partnership or a director of a limited company.

Most lenders would want to see that you have been trading for at least 2 years but there are some that are able to accept 1 year trading.

A lenders affordability assessment for self-employed applications can be different but with the correct details they are not difficult.