Self-employed people reveal ongoing mortgage difficulties

September 24, 2025 by Brendan O'Neill

Surveys and Statistics

A new survey of self-employed people has laid bare the difficulties they face in getting a mortgage, with three quarters of them stating that they were considering switching to becoming an employee.

This survey was carried out by Afin Bank and 500 self-employed people took part in it. A total of 75% indicated that they were thinking about abandoning self-employment – either now or in the future – to improve their chances of securing a mortgage. More than one quarter of those who participated in the survey felt that being self-employed had negatively impacted their chances of getting one in the past.

Some of the reasons they cited for their problems with mortgage lenders included income fluctuations (23%), difficulties in proving past earnings (13%) and lack of the necessary credit history (13%). A further 9% said that lenders had rejected them because they earned money from more than one source.

The survey found that getting a mortgage had been tough even for those self-employed people who had been successful. Almost one third of them stated that they had found it hard. This had led to over 8 out of every 10 considering themselves neglected by the UK mortgage sector.

Afin Bank intermediary sales director James Briggs told Financial Reporter that:

“While a lot of lenders claim to serve the self-employed, our research shows that support is patchy and difficult, to the point that a majority would consider returning to a salary-paying role to make it easier to get a mortgage.”

This is something for those with CeMAP training to bear in mind.