Self-employed mortgage calculator

The self-employed mortgage calculator gives a rough borrowing range from the income figure a lender is likely to use. Enter net profit, salary plus dividends, or an annualised day rate, add any other evidenced income, and the tool multiplies the total by a range of income multiples to show a low and a high estimate.

The result is an estimate, not an offer. Each lender runs its own affordability model, which also looks at outgoings, credit commitments, dependants and a stress-tested monthly payment. The figure on screen is a starting point for comparing different income readings rather than a promise of what any lender will lend. Firms in the directory that work with self-employed and contractor clients are listed on the page for self-employed mortgage brokers.

The income figure to enter depends on how the business is set up. Sole traders usually enter net profit from their tax calculations, partners their share of profit, and limited company directors salary plus dividends. Lenders often average the last two years or use the latest year where it is lower, so entering both shows the range.

Directors who keep profit in the company can test a second reading of salary plus their share of net profit, which some lenders accept when retained earnings are evidenced in the accounts. That second reading sits beside salary plus dividends rather than replacing it. The limited company mortgage calculator is built around those director income readings and can be used alongside this one.

Contractors assessed on their contract rate can enter an annualised day rate instead of accounts. As a worked example with example figures, not market data, a £400 day rate multiplied by 5 days and 46 weeks gives £92,000 a year, while a lender using 48 weeks would read the same contract as £96,000.

Lenders choose their own number of weeks and their own minimum contract history, so testing both figures shows how much the method alone moves the estimate. How lenders treat day rates, IR35 status, umbrella pay and CIS income is explained on the page about mortgages for contractors. The same contract can therefore produce different annualised figures before any income multiple is applied, which is why side-by-side readings of the same contract stay useful on this page.

The calculator cannot show whether a lender will accept the income evidence, which is often the deciding point in a self-employed case. Trading history, falling profit, overdue tax and credit history all change what a lender will offer, and none of them can be captured by an income multiple alone.

The wider rules on accounts, documents and income types are set out in the guide to self-employed mortgages. Lender criteria on trading history and evidence are the first filter, and the estimate only becomes useful once that filter is passed. An income multiple on its own cannot stand in for those checks.