Commenting on the launch, Ben Barbanel, head of debt finance at OakNorth, said: "High-street banks have limited mortgage offerings when it comes to borrowers who don’t have a regular or established source of income, such as the self-employed or business owners. Private banks, on the other hand, tend to have high entry requirements that are unfavourable to most of these individuals.
"Lenders are typically unwilling to offer bespoke terms to their mortgage products and as a result, more than one in ten business owners in the UK are unable to access the finance they need to purchase their first home.”
Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank Wealth Management also announced its entry into the bespoke lending sphere in May this year, offering a mortgage range for will consumers who want to borrow £3m or more.
Research carried out by Together in July 2019 found that 54 per cent of those turned down by a mortgage lender were rejected for reasons considered ’nonstandard’, including self-employment.
Pete Ball, CEO of personal finance at Together, said: “There has been a paradigm shift in the UK mortgage market as people’s ways of living are constantly evolving, however the UK mortgage market are stuck in the past in adapting to these changing needs of customers.
“This is largely due to the increasingly computerised process of lenders which automatically declines customers whose day-to-day circumstances do not fit their tick-box model.
"As a result, more than half of mortgage applicants are rejected for reasons that are essentially becoming the norm.”
He added: “It is staggering that factors such as being a contract worker or self-employed are more likely to exclude you from the mortgage application process than not having a large enough deposit.
"This is a strong indication that factors measuring your fitness for a mortgage are not adapted to the modern customers’ needs.”
