Self-Employed Mortgage Affordability Calculator UK 2026

Self-employed does not mean unmortgageable, but it does mean the lender assesses income differently. If you are a sole trader they use net profit from your SA302 and tax year overview. If you run a limited company they usually use salary plus dividends, and a smaller group of lenders will use salary plus your share of retained profit — which is often the difference between a decline and an offer.

Most high-street lenders want two or three years of accounts and will average the last two, or use the lower year if income is falling. A meaningful minority will lend on a single year's accounts, typically at 3.5x to 4x income rather than the 4.5x available to a two-year applicant with rising profits. That is the trade-off this calculator models.

Affordability is not just the income multiple. Lenders stress-test the payment at a higher rate, deduct committed credit, childcare and car finance, and apply their own loan-to-value caps. A 25% deposit opens far more of the market than a 5% one, and specialist lenders price accordingly.

Treat the result as a planning range, not an offer. Have your last two years of SA302s, tax year overviews and three months of business bank statements ready before you apply — a self-employed application with clean paperwork moves at the same speed as an employed one.