Self-employed no longer left out of mortgage deals

Banks and lenders are no longer ruling out the self-employed for mortgages if they have taken government support during the pandemic. Halifax this week said it would no longer ask workers if they had taken Self-Employment Income Support and would make eligibility calculations based on income over the past two years. Previously, business owners who said they had taken loans had found it hard to get a mortgage. Meanwhile, NatWest removed its ban on self-employed borrowers who had taken government grants last month, as long as the loans had not been in the past three months. HSBC has also stopped comparing business earnings with those from before the pandemic and will work out an average income over the past two years. Similarly, Santander is assessing income based on 2019-20 figures, instead of last year's. 

The Times (04/09/2021)