Borrowers with complex self-employed circumstances present a “huge opportunity” for mortgage brokers in 2025, according to specialist lending experts.
Speaking in the second instalment of a four-part video debate in partnership with Together about the challenges self-employed borrowers face, Greg Cunnington, head of strategic accounts at Legal & General (L&G) Mortgage Club, said income complexities and the manual underwriting needed to assess the risk often exceeded the appetite of high street lenders and the capacity of their systems.
Analysis of income and criteria searches on L&G’s sourcing system Ignite revealed the scale of the issue, as well as the opportunity.
Cunnington said: “Of the more than 11,000 searches carried out on Ignite in the last 90 days on income, six of the top eight searches related to [the] self-employed. This is where customers and advisers need help.”
Of those search results, 39% were accepted, 11% were a maybe and 50% were a decline decision for the self-employed borrower.
Cunnington added: “Firstly, that shows there’s a huge opportunity. Secondly, it shows why intermediaries need to be set up with specialist lenders, so they know who will look at these cases.”
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The panel went on to discuss how specialist lenders were more suitably equipped to delve into the background of each case and work with brokers to explore all the borrower’s circumstances to help build a bigger picture.
Master broker The Loans Engine, along with Together, discussed examples of self-employed scenarios that had recently come across their desks that represented a sound lending opportunity but had been turned down by the highlight, and brokers were advised on the best ways to present a complex self-employed case.
In part one of the four-part video series, the panel discussed how the self-employed market is expected to grow significantly in the next five years to £34.8bn, presenting an opportunity for specialist lenders.
Watch the 12:10 video, chaired by Samantha Partington, freelance journalist for Mortgage Solutions, with speakers Maeve Ward, head of intermediary sales for personal finance at Together, Nick Parker, head of networks and clubs at Together, Paul Zammit, The Loans Engine’s CEO, and Greg Cunnington, head of strategic accounts at L&G Mortgage Club.
