The lender will now assess self-employed customers ‒ which includes limited company directors with a shareholding of more than 25 per cent ‒ based on the previous three months of business bank statements, so that they can demonstrate trading has returned to the levels seen before the pandemic hit.
Contractors will also only need three months of contract history, with 12 months of previous employment in a similar role.
The move follows research by The Mortgage Lender among self-employed borrowers which found that more than half believed it was harder to get a mortgage now than a year ago.
The criteria revamp comes alongside rate changes, with its two‒ and five-year products at 70 per cent loan-to-value (LTV) now starting at 3.2 per cent and 3.35 per cent respectively. TML has also dropped the completion fee on a host of its remortgage products.
Steve Griffiths, sales and product director at TML, noted that many self-employed borrowers and contractors had been hit hard by the pandemic, but could now demonstrate that their incomes were back to pre-Covid levels.
He continued: “By listening to their concerns and adapting our criteria to meet their current needs we’re providing the choice, flexibility and agility that’s expected from a competitive specialist lending sector.”
