Resident 1 year, self employed, can I get a mortgage?

saminthesak

Hi there,

I've been resident of the UK over a year, am self employed and have a good turn over.

Just sold my home abroad, so healthy deposit, but only 1yr of UK self assessment. Broker is asking for 2yrs, but can't except my overseas self assessment tax returns.

Can I get a mortgage with just 1 year of UK tax returns?

ACG

1 years tax returns can be overcome. 
1 year in the UK is a bit trickier. 

The 2 combined... Im actually not sure. 

Where did you move from? It might affect things. 
What type of Visa do you have? 

ACG

Ive just had a very quick look, it looks like there might be 2 or 3 lenders who will consider it... Considering and doing can be very different though. 

Assuming you have permanent rights to reside, I would be fairly confident one of those 2-3 would do it, but their rates are around 7.5% so a bit top heavy. Best case scenario seems to be rates of around 5.7% from those 3 with a 25-30% deposit. 

saminthesak

Came from Australia, Spousal Visa, British wife who will be joint applicant. I have over 50% deposit.

How on earth do professionals who move to the UK ever own their own home under these conditions?

saminthesak

Furthermore, I was a resident 2014-20, left during covid and had to reapply for residency on return. 1 year non-resident.

kingstreet

There are high street solutions here, particularly with 25%+ deposit.

RedFraggle

Is your income required for the mortgage?
You can gift your wife the money tax free. She could buy if she meets eligibility criteria 

kingstreet

saminthesak said:

Came from Australia, Spousal Visa, British wife who will be joint applicant. I have over 50% deposit.

How on earth do professionals who move to the UK ever own their own home under these conditions?

There may be further options for professionals. You didn't mention that in your OP. TBH having to wait for an extra year to get the best mortgage options may not be the worst thing in the world in a stagnant/decreasing property market.

ACG

saminthesak said:

Came from Australia, Spousal Visa, British wife who will be joint applicant. I have over 50% deposit.

How on earth do professionals who move to the UK ever own their own home under these conditions?

Wait 2 years 

But your situation is slightly better than described. As Kingstreet says, there is a possibility of high street and failing that another smallish building society or 2 who might do something at slightly higher rates. 

saminthesak

kingstreet said:

saminthesak said:

Came from Australia, Spousal Visa, British wife who will be joint applicant. I have over 50% deposit.

How on earth do professionals who move to the UK ever own their own home under these conditions?

There may be further options for professionals. You didn't mention that in your OP. TBH having to wait for an extra year to get the best mortgage options may not be the worst thing in the world in a stagnant/decreasing property market.

Thanks, but I would rather pay my own mortgage than someone else's.

OhWow

saminthesak said:

Came from Australia, Spousal Visa, British wife who will be joint applicant. I have over 50% deposit.

How on earth do professionals who move to the UK ever own their own home under these conditions?

The only UK visa for a professional who moves to the UK to be self employed, is the Innovator Founder visa and these can get Settlement (Indefinite Leave to Remain) after just 3 years.

But this visa is not for any self employment. Their business has to be proven to be innovative.

"You can apply for an Innovator Founder visa if:

• you want to set up and run an innovative business in the UK - it must be something that’s different from anything else on the market
• your business or business idea has been endorsed by an approved body, also known as an endorsing body
• you meet the other eligibility requirements

This visa used to be called the Innovator visa.

Eligibility

You must be able to show that your business idea is:

• new - you cannot join a business that is already trading
• innovative - you must have an original business idea which is different from anything else on the market
• viable, with potential for growth
• scalable - you must give evidence of planning that includes creating jobs and growing into national and international markets

You’ll need to get an endorsing body to assess that your business idea meets the requirements."

https://www.gov.uk/innovator-founder-visa

You are on the more expensive Spouse visa, where your spouse has sponsored you to the UK. On that visa you can work in any job, or not work at all. Using a spouse to sponsor you takes 5 years to reach Indefinite Leave to Remain. It requires 2 visas to meet the 5 years, meaning another visa to apply for and another expensive visa fee and IHS (Immigration Heath Surcharge) to pay. Both the visa fee and IHS have a 20% increase coming in soon.

As your wife sponsored you to live in the UK, then she had to be working to do so (unless she is on certain benefits). Can you use her salary for a mortgage?