Research finds self-employed still struggle to access mortgages

October 14, 2025 by Brendan O'Neill

Surveys and Statistics

The latest research has found that a sizeable percentage of people who are self-employed still struggle to get access to mortgages, even when they can prove they are financially stable.

This study was published by Shawbrook and is called the Home A-loan report. What it found was that 79% of self-employed people had consistently stayed on top of their financial obligations, and yet many still found it hard to get a mortgage. Out of those who had previously applied to lenders, 34% said that they had been rejected because their credit scores were not enough.

A further 30% had been turned down due to lender fears about the stability of their incomes, while 28% had struggled because lenders did not fully understand their self-employment.

Not all of the findings were negative though. It found a reduction in the percentage of self-employed people who had been rejected for a mortgage. When the study was conducted last year, this stood at 45%. This year it has been reduced to 24% – a big difference.

What it indicates is that more lenders may be changing their lending criteria, to make them more viable to those who are self-employed. However, it is clear that people who work for themselves still face significant mortgage barriers.

Steve Griffiths from Shawbrook told Mortgage Introducer:

“While it’s encouraging to see mortgage rejection rates falling, the fact remains that millions of creditworthy self-employed individuals are still being excluded from the property market.”

Advisors with CeMAP training can potentially help with this by identifying specialist lenders.