Research indicates mortgage industry still failing self-employed

February 28, 2025 by Brendan O'Neill

Surveys and Statistics

Those who work on a self-employed basis are still being failed by the mainstream mortgage industry, according to the latest research to be published by a UK lender.

Together is a company that offers specialist mortgages and it carried out this research. What the results show is that self-employed people in the UK are increasingly prosperous, but still have difficulty in getting a mortgage. The total amount of disposable income they have built up is close to £82 billion and yet four out of every five said that securing a mortgage was a struggle.

The primary reason that most of them cited for that is the restrictive criteria of the major lenders. 87% told the survey that they feel getting a mortgage is a lot more difficult for them because they are self-employed. Meanwhile, 83% said that the policies of mainstream lenders disadvantaged them compared with employed people.

At the root of the problem are the automated assessments that many big lenders use. These give people with steady month-to-month earnings an edge during the application process. That is a concern because the number of self-employed people is rising. There are now 4.4 million in the UK, making it a growth market for lenders who are willing to cater to them.

Ryan Etchells from Together told Mortgage Introducer that: