NatWest self-employed criteria to change next month

July 26, 2021 by Brendan O'Neill

Lenders

NatWest has announced that its lending criteria for the self-employed will be updated from next month, after previously stating that it planned to look again at what the rules were.

Under its current terms, people who applied for one of the government’s Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) payments from July 14th, 2020, are not eligible to apply for a mortgage from NatWest. From early next month, however, this is set to change, with a NatWest spokesperson indicating that the revised criteria will require self-employed people to have been working regularly for a three-month period to be eligible.

NatWest had faced criticism for its lending criteria for the self-employed, especially in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. This led the lender to reveal to Mortgage Solutions that it was planning to look at what it could do to make buying a home more viable for people in that position.

According to Mortgage Solutions, the statement issued by the spokesperson said that:

“We are currently reviewing our policy and we expect to launch a new proposition in the first week of August to help more self-employed people, whose existing businesses have been impacted, to be eligible to apply for a mortgage.”

The spokesperson added that the profits for the three-month period would be used to determine how affordable a mortgage was for a borrower.

Hopefully this, along with the support of an advisor with a CeMAP qualification, will enable more self-employed people to find a way onto the property ladder, despite the effects of the pandemic.