Accord Mortgages has announced that it will be taking steps to make it easier for those who are self-employed to secure a mortgage, by cutting the amount of financial evidence they need to provide.
In the future, anyone who works on a self-employed basis who applies for a mortgage with the company will only be required to supply evidence of their income for the previous two years, instead of the three years it has been up until now.
Speaking to the Financial Reporter, Accord’s corporate account manager, Nicola Alvarez, stated that this decision had been made in recognition of the fact that a growing number of people in the UK are self-employed and it therefore made sense for Accord to do everything possible to ensure they can get a mortgage just like people who work as traditional employees.
She also stated that the company had always taken a sensible approach when it came to deciding whether to approve mortgage loans for self-employed applicants, basing decisions on whether they were able to prove a sustained level of income. However, she went on to say that reducing the proof of income requirements would ensure that Accord’s brokers would know what was needed to resolve applications as quickly and easily as possible.
Alvarez concluded by pointing out that this change of policy would let the firm offer mortgages to more people than ever before. The likely increase in demand that it will create is good news for anyone currently doing CeMAP training to become a mortgage advisor.