According to research from The Mortgage Lender, which surveyed 1,000 self-employed people, this has partially led 51 per cent of recipients believing it will be more challenging to secure a mortgage because of their employment status.
A further 53 per cent said this dissuaded them from applying.
The survey found that just over a quarter had seen their income slashed by more than over half due to the pandemic. Around 16 per cent said they had suffered income loss between a quarter and 50 per cent.
However, there was more of a nuanced picture with self-employed respondents, as 14 per cent said their income either had not changed or had improved.
The Mortgage Lender product director Steve Griffiths said self-employed borrowers already felt “let down” by the mortgage market, with a report the lender did in 2018 revealing one million self-employed people had reconsidered their employment status due to uncertainty.
He said it was even more important for specialist lenders to have wide criteria that could cater to a range of circumstances. He pointed to The Mortgage Lender’s new residential range, which caters for self-employed, complex income borrowers and those with credit impairments.
Analysis by Mortgage Solutions has showed that in light of the pandemic lenders have scrutinised the income of the self-employed, especially when it comes to government support.
This has led some borrowers to believe that they are being shut out of the market, however, brokers canvassed by this publication earlier in the week said that this shortage would likely be a short-term blip.
