There is a large number of skilled professionals on visas who live and work in the UK. People who are already contributing to society, earning stable incomes, and wanting to put down roots. For many, homeownership is part of that plan and we, as an industry, have to support this highly skilled, dedicated and credit worthy set of borrowers where possible.
The latest Home Office figures show there were 175,143 visas granted to main applicants in all work categories in the year ending September 2025, 27% fewer than the previous year, but 28% higher than in 2019, prior to the UK’s departure from the EU and the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, extension of stay grants for work routes increased by 16% in the latest year and are more than seven times higher than 2019. Health and care worker extensions increased by 22% to 297,873 and skilled worker extensions increased 15% to 183,168, reflecting the high number of entry clearance grants issued in 2022 and 2023, many of whom will have initially arrived to work in the UK and require an extension to continue working in the UK. In addition, graduate route extension grants increased by 10% to 237,452 in the latest year.
In short, fewer people may be arriving, but hundreds of thousands are already here, working, paying tax, raising families, and building lives. These are residents in all but name. Yet many still find it hard to access mortgage finance. Why? Because too many lenders still treat them as ‘exceptions’.
This isn’t just about nurses and carers
There’s a widespread assumption that skilled worker visas mostly apply to frontline health and care roles. While that’s a major segment, the real list of qualifying jobs is far broader.
From IT professionals to engineers, finance managers to university lecturers, pharmacists to software developers, the skilled worker visa list stretches across over 300 occupations. It includes lawyers, PR professionals, architects, graphic designers, even animal care workers and fitness instructors.
These are not fringe cases, they are central to our economy, and they should be well within the reach of the mortgage market.
What brokers are telling us
Over the past year, we’ve had many conversations with brokers struggling to place mortgage applications for clients on skilled worker visas. These are clients with good credit histories, steady jobs, and long-term plans to stay in the UK.
But once they mention their visa status, too many doors start to close and off the back of that feedback, we recently launched our new skilled worker visa proposition.
In our view, supporting skilled worker visa clients shouldn’t be a box-ticking exercise. It should be part of a wider mission to serve people who are overlooked by the high street. Whether it’s returning expats, self-employed borrowers, or skilled workers on visas, the same principle applies: if the case makes sense, lenders need to look for ways to say yes, rather than issuing a point-blank no.
The extension figures alone show a large group of borrowers who are staying in the UK, renewing their visas, and often earning more year-on-year. This is a group that brokers can and should be serving but to do that, they need lenders who won’t reject the case at first glance. They need clear criteria, a manual approach and someone at the other end of the phone who can make a decision based on the full picture.
Looking ahead
There’s still no official figure on how many people are currently living in the UK on skilled worker or health and care worker visas. But we do know that the government’s own bodies, like the National Audit Office, are planning a better assessment soon.
Until then, brokers should keep one thing in mind: the opportunity here is not going away. Even if new visa numbers fall, the population already here remains significant. These clients are earning, saving, and looking to buy. And if the mainstream lenders don’t want to support them, then it’s time for building societies like Dudley to step up.
