On the self-employed side, the mutual will consider applications from self-employed borrowers with a minimum of two years’ trading, backed by two complete years of financial accounts.
The lender had previously required that applicants should have three years’ trading or two years plus a projected third year.
Nottingham Building Society has also increased the maximum loan to value (LTV) for new-build flats from 80% to 85%, which will support more first-time buyers and movers with smaller deposits.
The firm has also removed the LTV cap for lending into retirement, which was previously set at 80% LTV.
The change will give “greater flexibility to borrowers approaching or entering later life, reflecting longer working lives and the need for lending solutions that better align with real financial plans rather than rigid age-based assumptions”.
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Matt Kingston, sales director at Nottingham Building Society, said: “Progress in lending doesn’t always come from headline-grabbing products – it often comes from removing the small but significant barriers that stop people moving forward.
“Whether it’s self-employed borrowers navigating inconsistent criteria, customers planning for later life, or buyers trying to access new-build homes, these changes are about making the process clearer, fairer, and more aligned with real-world circumstances.
“We’ve been very deliberate in the changes we’ve made over recent months. They’re part of a broader shift towards a more flexible, specialist approach that recognises how people live and work today – and that momentum won’t slow down in 2026.”
Nottingham Building Society made a raft of criteria changes in December that aimed to better account for new ways of working and different income structures.
