Career stage
Associate & self-employed
This is where the high street gets dentists most wrong. Your income is real, evidenced and stable. It just does not arrive in the single line an affordability calculator was built to read.
Reviewed byColin WallaceLast reviewed
3 parts · one incomeIllustrative proportions
The answer bank
The questions asked at this stage.
12 filed at this stage. More added as they come up.
For some lenders one year is enough. Others want two or three, and a few will assess your latest year on its own where the direction of travel is right, meaning upwards. It depends on the lender – this is exactly what we check before an application goes anywhere near your credit file.
Most will use your salary plus the dividends you have actually drawn. A smaller group will look at your share of net profit instead, which is a very different number if you leave money in the company. Which approach you need decides which lenders are worth approaching at all.
On a lender that works from drawn dividends, yes – it can understate your income considerably. On a lender that works from net profit, it makes almost no difference. The two are not in conflict; you just need the second kind of lender.
It can. Higher expenses mean lower profit, and lower profit leaves less for a lender to work from whether it reads your share of net profit or the dividends you have actually drawn. It is the same trade-off as keeping your drawings low: what is efficient in April is not always what a lender wants to see.
Usually they are read as a deduction from income rather than as a debt, and the treatment varies more between lenders than most people expect. What varies is which evidence a lender works from and which figure it takes from it, rather than what happens to land in your account. It is worth knowing which lender does what before you pick one.
To a lender you are almost always self-employed, even where you hold a directorship and pay yourself a salary. That changes which documents are asked for and how the income is calculated. It does not, on its own, make borrowing harder.
Some lenders average your last two years, some take the most recent, and some take the lower of the two. If your income rose because you moved towards private work, the lender you choose decides whether that rise counts. If it fell, the same choice works the other way.
Commonly two years of finalised accounts or tax calculations, though the range runs from one to three depending on the lender. An accountant’s reference sometimes fills a gap. What matters is matching your paperwork to a lender who accepts it.
A thin UK credit file and a recent visa make it harder rather than impossible. Some lenders are comfortable with limited UK history where the income and the profession are stable. It depends on your visa type and how long you have been here, so it is a conversation with your broker rather than a yes or no.
No, but you do need one whose criteria fit how you are paid. Familiarity with the profession helps at underwriting; the criteria decide the outcome. The two are not the same thing.
Not generally, if you pick the right lender. It needs to understand how many days you work at each practice and what kind of work you do there. Go to the wrong one and it may take only some of your income rather than all of it, which reduces what you can borrow.
There may be a fee for mortgage advice. The actual amount you pay will depend on your circumstances. Whilst the fee is up to 1% of the amount borrowed, a typical fee for working with a dentist is £749. You will be told what yours would be, in writing, before you commit to anything.
Nothing filed under that yet – ask a specialist directly.
Also in this hub
- Case studiesAnonymised cases at this stage, with the numbers.Colin to supply
- ReviewsVerified Google reviews from dentists at this stage.Colin to supply
- GuideThe stage in full, as one downloadable document.Next
- CalculatorWhat your income actually supports, before you apply.Next
- VideoAn adviser answering the questions people ask most.Later
Read next
Not quite where you are?
Careers move. The answers that matter move with them – so each stage keeps its own set rather than sharing a general one.
How it goes
- 01
A conversation
What you earn, how it actually arrives, and what you are trying to buy. No credit check at this point.
- 02
The income case
NHS contract, private work and dividends assembled into a picture an underwriter can accept, with the evidence attached.
- 03
The lender search
The panel searched on criteria as well as rate, so the application goes to a lender whose rules already fit you.
- 04
Through to completion
One adviser start to finish, with protection discussed alongside the mortgage rather than after it.
The next step
Ask for the
second opinion.
Tell us how to reach you and a specialist adviser will call back to talk through your income and what it should actually support. Your enquiry goes straight to the team.
Or call directly
0333 054 0747- A conversation first – there is no obligation to proceed.
- Bring your last two years of figures if you have them to hand.
Call me back
Four details. Nothing else needed to start.