"Self-employment, part-time employment and the number of people earning multiple incomes have all grown in recent years and homebuyers now rely on a more diverse selection of income sources"
According to Rightmove, the national average asking price is now £309,339 and with momentum building ahead of the spring market, this figure only looks set to grow.
Increasing prices is a sign of a healthy market, which is good news. But it also means that your clients will experience more affordability pressure when it comes to being able to buy their dream property.
So, what are your options to give them the best chance of meeting this affordability gap?
You may think of a specialist lender for clients who have failed a credit score, but there are other occasions when an individual approach to underwriting can deliver the best solution.
In some situations, a specialist lender could provide the best option for your client because of the way it considers affordability. This isn’t to say that specialist lenders take a more relaxed attitude to affordability. But, if your client is self-employed, earns multiple incomes or has a more complex income structure, a specialist lender could be better equipped than an automated high street approach to properly consider their true earnings.
It is well documented that self-employment, part-time employment and the number of people earning multiple incomes have all grown in recent years and homebuyers now rely on a more diverse selection of income sources to demonstrate their affordability, which can make it more complex for lenders to calculate how much they are able to borrow.
Lenders that take an automated approach to assessing a mortgage application tend to put restrictions on the level of additional or self-employed income they are able to consider, but a specialist lender that uses experienced underwriters to assess an applicant’s individual circumstances might be able to use more of their income if they have evidence that this is sustainable.
Specialist lenders are not just for clients with a failed credit score. In fact, one of the most popular reasons for clients to take a mortgage with Pepper Money was because they have complex income.
With asking prices approaching record levels it seems that affordability challenge could soon be larger than ever. Therefore, in the right circumstances, a specialist lender that is able to assess your client’s individual circumstances could be the right choice to help them overcome the affordability challenge.
