Healthcare professionals such as GPs, Medical Consultants, Dentists and Pharmacists are often self-employed and therefore can be subject to income fluctuations, which are a complex area in the mortgage space. Most mainstream lenders will be cautious about assessing fluctuation income, meaning you need a mortgage adviser on your side who can look past a ‘tick box’ approach to find a flexible and pragmatic lender who’s willing to look at the wider context.
Case profile
Our client was looking for an 80% LTV mortgage on a property valued at £1.1m. They had recently passed their consultancy exams as a General Practitioner and, as a result, had a new role at their surgery, resulting in an increase to their employed income. They planned to top up this salary with locum work, as they had done previously.
The issue in securing a mortgage came when looking at the client’s income history. In the preceding 12 months, they had worked fewer locum hours in order to concentrate on their studies. Therefore, their overall income over the last 12 months was less than it had historically been and less than it was projected to be in coming years. Further complication was added by the fact that the client was on a Tier two visa, which had just less than six months left to run at the time of application.
Our Specialist Mortgage Adviser needed to find a lender who would look at the wider context of the case and understand the reason for the decrease in income over the previous 12 months.
Solution
The adviser suggested the client put forward a letter from their practice explaining that their locum work would resume post the exam period and that it was expected to continue well into the future. The lender was satisfied that the client’s projected income would be higher than that achieved in the previous 12 months, therefore they based the lending on projected earnings rather than historical income. Our team was able to proceed the case to completion and our client secured the first home of their dreams.
We have access to an unrivalled network of lenders and established relationships with decision makers, allowing us to put our cases directly to those who matter and gain fast responses for our clients. If you have a lending challenge, talk to us about it so we can help you take the next steps in securing your dream home or investment project.
