This calculator applies the three assessment structures explained in our Self-Employed and Contractor Mortgages guide directly to your own figures. Choose your business structure and enter your numbers to see an estimated borrowing range.
What the three assessment routes mean in practice
The calculator applies three distinct methods, matching the most common approaches lenders use for self-employed applicants:
- Sole trader and partnership (SA302 route): Most lenders average your net profit over the two most recent years, using SA302 tax calculations as evidence. If your income is rising, the average may understate your current earnings. If it's falling, some lenders use only the lower of the two years rather than the average. The two-year requirement means very recently self-employed applicants often face a harder time regardless of how well the business is doing.
- Limited company director: The income assessed is typically your salary plus dividends drawn from the company, averaged over two years. Profit retained inside the company generally isn't counted as assessable income, even though it belongs to you economically. Enter your actual salary plus dividends drawn — not the company's total profit figure.
- Day-rate contractor: Specialist lenders annualise your contract day rate — typically rate × 5 days × 46 or 48 weeks — rather than looking at SA302 figures. This approach is not available from most mainstream lenders. It's a feature of lenders who understand contractor income patterns, and typically requires a broker who knows which lenders actively offer it.
How to interpret the result
The figure produced is an estimated maximum based on the income multiple you've entered. It means: if a lender applies that multiple to that assessed income figure, the theoretical borrowing ceiling is approximately the figure shown. Your actual credit profile, deposit size, existing financial commitments, the specific property, and the lender's individual criteria will all affect the real outcome.
What this calculator cannot assess
This tool applies a single income multiple to a single income figure. It does not account for: your credit history and existing credit commitments (which reduce affordability in the lender's actual calculation), gaps in trading or contracting history, whether you have two complete years of accounts, the loan-to-value on the property you're buying, or the specific lender's own treatment of your business structure. In self-employed mortgage applications, knowing which lender assesses your structure most favourably often matters more than the headline multiple. Our Mortgage Broker Resource Centre explains how to find a broker with specialist self-employed lender knowledge.
Real affordability assessments also weigh existing debts, credit history, deposit size, and a stress-tested interest rate, and day-rate assessment is only available from specific specialist lenders, not the market broadly. Use this to understand the shape of the calculation, then get an actual assessment from a broker or lender.
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