Frequently asked questions
What is an independent professional mortgage?
An independent professional mortgage is no different from any other mortgage in terms of pricing. The difference is how the lender assesses your application. Many lenders are now coming to terms with the independent professional lifestyle and have chosen to update their lending criteria. They no longer look at traditional forms of income assessment, but rather channel the application towards bespoke underwriting criteria, specifically designed for the independent professional community. In this way, as an independent professional, you can be assessed on a multiple of your annualised rate, allowing you to borrow in line with your true earnings. By using a specialist broker, you can access the same competitive interest rates available to people on PAYE.
Will I qualify for a mortgage?
Every application is assessed on an individual basis but the broad criteria are: 1) You must have a current contract in place. 2) You need to prove continuity in the type of work you do. 3) Borrowers new to independent working are acceptable. 4) Income can be defined via annualised rate. The only documentation CMME requires to support an application is a copy of your current contract, SA302’s, tax overview statements or trading accounts (where available), identification and bank statements. CMME can assess how lenders view your circumstances based on feedback from banking sector decision-makers, with no obligation.
Who provides the mortgages?
More lenders than ever before have realised the independent professional sector is growing, and have decided to update their borrowing criteria. These include High Street names like Clydesdale, Virgin Money and Nationwide, as well as a growing number of specialist lenders including Metro Bank, Leeds and Kensington. Since we launched, we’ve spent time educating lenders about independent professional remuneration structures and how to understand their true earning potential. As a result, we’ve been able to agree bespoke underwriting terms with a range of lenders, enabling people like you to borrow based on a multiple of your contract rate.
Learn more: Our lenders
How is my application assessed?
A standard mortgage application is assessed based on salary plus dividends and/or net profit if you run a limited company or net profit if a sole trader. If you’re using an umbrella company, then it will be your PAYE income, often deducting any income for holiday pay and noted as commission. Traditionally, lending criteria have been based on individuals being either employed or self-employed. The issue with this traditional approach is that independent professionals don’t fall into either of these categories, meaning the sum you’re able to borrow falls short of what you should be able to secure. When you cannot provide trading accounts an independent professional application is evaluated based on your gross contract rate, with less emphasis on how you get paid. For an umbrella contractor, we aim to work with a lender willing to include all elements of the pay listed on your payslip by using your gross contract rate. We use your current contract rate to establish a borrowing figure, and support this with previous contracts and occasionally your CV if a lender requires it.
What rate can I get?
Before independent professional mortgages were created, many contractors, freelancers and consultants had to rely on self-certified mortgages with higher rates and higher fees. But today, with our help, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to secure the same mortgage rates as someone working on a PAYE basis. We don’t offer different pricing and we don’t deal with lenders who do because we believe it’s unfair to penalise you. Instead, we work closely with you to understand exactly the kind of mortgage you need, then we research the market to identify the lender best placed to help. We always keep our independent professional rate table up to date so you can stay in touch with the best, most competitive mortgage rates out there.
Learn more: Our mortgage rates
Why should I choose CMME?
We’re dedicated to supporting Britain’s growing community of independent professionals – ambitious, enterprising people like you who’ve backed themselves to make their own way in life.
We know being independent makes you different from the norm and too often that means government and conventional service providers leave you in the lurch. We think that’s wrong and, since we launched in 2004, we’ve made it our mission to do something about it.
We believe being independent shouldn’t stop you from buying the home you deserve. We’ve worked long and hard to help lenders understand independent professionals better and we’re ready to bring you the know-how, the experience, and the connections you need to get a great mortgage deal.
Still have questions?
If you still have questions feel free to contact us