Simply put, yes. 

Our expert advisers have helped thousands of contractors obtain a mortgage. As a company, we have access to lenders that allow you to borrow based on your contract. We secure mortgages based on a multiple-of-day rate, meaning that if you have been working as little as one day, we will be able to assist you. 

Fortunately, in recent years, banks have adapted to the growing number of contract workers and freelancers in the UK – and many of them have dedicated departments dealing with mortgages for freelancers and contractors. 

You will not pay a premium for being a contractor, but the pool of lenders can be smaller. It depends on the time you have been contracting, your daily rate, your IR35 status, and many other things to see which lenders will allow you to obtain a mortgage. Once we know which lenders can support your application, you’ll receive the same rates from those lenders as anyone else might.

It is important that you get advice from an adviser who is familiar with the contracting world so you can be sure the advice you receive is suitable. 

It is down to many advisers and lenders misunderstanding the position of a contractor.

Many people approach their bank directly to apply for a mortgage or to get advice. Limiting your options to your bank is generally not the best thing to do in any mortgage process, and that includes contractor mortgages. It is often the case that the branch-based advisers misunderstand contractors and instantly assess you as being self-employed, which is true even of lenders who can lend based on daily rates, etc. 

This can also be true of whole of market brokers who are not well versed in working with contractor clients and therefore even if you have been told that you cannot obtain a mortgage, it is always worth speaking to us so that we can assess your situation fully and properly.

One of our advisers will contact you for an initial discussion to find out exactly what you are looking for and whether we can help. As a contractor looking to obtain a mortgage, our advisers will need to gather certain information before engaging with a lender to review your options. 

From the initial conversation, we will normally be able to ascertain exactly which lenders will be able to support your application and we can then assess affordability as well as rates, alongside any niche elements to your query to give an accurate quotation.

Thereafter we would look to obtain an agreement in principle, which is the lender ensuring that you meet their affordability and credit background requirements. This simply requires further information, which you can provide in your own time or over the phone with your adviser. With an agreement in principle in hand, you are then able to make an offer, should you be looking to purchase a new property. If it is a remortgage of an existing property, then it is simply down to obtaining the documents.

Your adviser will provide a checklist of the required documentation and once this has been received and reviewed by your adviser, your mortgage application will be submitted.

In broad terms, your chances of getting a mortgage as a contractor are the same as they are for most people. As a contractor, the main three things that influence the lender options you have are as follows;

• Your rate of pay – some have no minimum income, but many require a minimum income of £50k for example.
• How long you have been contracting – again, some have no minimum, but most require you to have been contracting for 12 months.
• Whether there have been any gaps between contracts – Generally, any one gap exceeding 6 weeks within the last 12 months will begin to alter your choices but again there is flexibility.
• Further to that, there are other, more generic things you can do that will improve your chances of getting a mortgage:

Offer a larger deposit – borrowing less money from the lender reduces the risk on their behalf.

Maintain a good credit rating – as with any mortgage application, it is important to ensure your credit rating is not affected by large credit card debt or missed payments. 

Our Mortgage Calculator will give you an estimate of how much you can borrow. This is only an estimation and can vary dramatically between lenders and it also depends on other factors such as age, credit history, whether you have children, your level of deposit, and many others. Your adviser will obtain all this information and be able to provide a more accurate figure.

We have access to a comprehensive range of mortgages from across the market that includes exclusive deals not available directly from lenders on the high street. Many large lenders will offer mortgages to contractors such as Halifax, Nationwide and Natwest.