Professional mortgages: how lenders assess doctors and other professionals

Some lenders operate professional mortgage policies that allow higher income multiples for certain occupations, on the basis that their earnings tend to rise steeply and predictably. Where a standard case might be limited to around four and a half times income, a professional policy might stretch to five or five and a half times, and occasionally more at lower loan to values. This is lender policy, not a right, and it varies by lender, profession, career stage and deposit.

There is no separate legal product called a professional mortgage. What exists is a set of criteria concessions that certain lenders apply to certain occupations. The concessions usually take one or more of these forms.

• A higher income multiple than the lender's standard maximum
• Willingness to lend on a signed job offer or contract before you have started
• Acceptance of income types that are otherwise treated cautiously, such as bank or locum work
• Lower deposit requirements for newly qualified applicants in some cases
• A view of future earnings, rather than only current earnings, for those on a defined training pathway

You will usually still need to pass the lender's affordability assessment, including the stress test that checks you could cope with higher rates. A higher multiple raises the ceiling. It does not remove the floor.

Lists vary between lenders. The occupations that most commonly appear are medical doctors, dentists, veterinary surgeons, pharmacists, optometrists, solicitors, barristers, chartered accountants, actuaries, chartered surveyors, architects and chartered engineers. Some lenders extend to pilots, some to teachers in specific circumstances, and some to any applicant over a certain income threshold regardless of job title.

Most lenders require membership of, or registration with, the relevant professional body. For doctors that usually means General Medical Council registration, for dentists the General Dental Council, for vets the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, and for solicitors admission to the roll. Have the registration number to hand.

Being in a listed profession does not by itself qualify you. Lenders typically look at qualification status, current role and whether your earnings profile matches the pattern the policy is designed for.

Take a doctor in training with a basic salary of 45,000, an additional payment for out of hours and on call work of 12,000, and around 6,000 a year of extra bank shifts within the same trust, evidenced on payslips over the last twelve months.

If a lender counts only basic salary, the assessable income is 45,000. At an illustrative multiple of 4.5 times, that supports around 202,500.

If the lender counts basic plus the additional payment plus a proportion of the bank work, say all of the first two and 50 per cent of the bank income, the assessable figure is 60,000. At the same illustrative 4.5 times, that supports 270,000.

If the same lender also applies a professional multiple of 5.5 times to that 60,000, it supports 330,000.

The multiples above are illustrative and used only to show how the two variables interact. The point is that the income definition and the multiple compound. Two lenders looking at the same payslips can land more than 120,000 apart.

NHS pay is made of several components and lenders treat them differently.

Basic salary is straightforward and always counted in full. Pay progression through the pay scales is predictable, and some lenders will take account of a scheduled uplift where you can evidence it, though many will simply use current pay.

Additional payments for out of hours, on call and unsocial hours work, which sit on the payslip as a supplement to basic pay for many doctors, are usually counted, often in full because they are contractual. Confirm how a given lender treats them, as some apply a percentage.

Bank shifts, meaning extra shifts worked for your own trust through its staff bank, are usually accepted where they show a consistent pattern. Lenders often want three to twelve months of payslips and will frequently count between 50 and 100 per cent of the average. Sporadic bank work in the last two months rarely counts for much.

Locum work through an agency is treated more cautiously because it is not guaranteed. If it is your main income and you work through your own limited company, you will often be assessed as self-employed with accounts and SA302s required. If it tops up a substantive NHS post, some lenders will count a proportion with evidence of consistency.

Private practice income, common for consultants and dentists, is generally treated as self-employed income and assessed on accounts or tax calculations, usually alongside your employed NHS income. Two years of evidence is the normal expectation.

This is where professional policies earn their keep. A newly qualified professional often has a low current salary, a steep expected income curve and student debt, which reads badly on standard criteria and perfectly sensibly to a lender that understands the career path.

Several lenders will consider an application based on a signed contract or job offer before you have started, commonly where the start date is within about three months. That lets you buy around a rotation change or a training post move rather than waiting.

Some will lend to applicants still in a training programme, including doctors in foundation and specialty training, trainee solicitors and accountants working towards qualification, provided the pathway is documented. Criteria differ sharply here, and some lenders require you to have completed a certain stage or to have a minimum period of the contract remaining.

Student loan repayments are treated as a committed outgoing by most lenders because they come out of your pay. They reduce affordability, but they do not usually count as adverse credit and they are not the barrier people fear.

Doctors and other trainees often work a string of fixed term contracts in different places. Standard employment criteria dislike this, because a twelve month contract with three months left looks temporary.

Professional and medical policies generally accommodate it, treating the training programme as continuous employment rather than a series of separate jobs. You will usually be asked to evidence your training number or programme, and to show the contract chain. Expect to provide your contract, recent payslips, and confirmation of your programme from your deanery or employer.

Associate dentists are frequently self-employed, working under an associate agreement with a practice, and are usually assessed on accounts or tax calculations even though the work is regular. Some lenders will use the associate agreement plus a shorter trading history than usual.

Vets in practice are often employed and assessed conventionally, with professional multiples available at some lenders once registered.

Solicitors and accountants tend to fit the classic professional profile of a defined qualification followed by a steep salary curve. Partners in firms are usually assessed as self-employed on partnership profit share, which is a different conversation from an employed associate.

None of the above is guaranteed. Lenders set these policies commercially and change them, sometimes at short notice. Being a doctor does not entitle you to a higher multiple, and two lenders with apparently similar professional policies can produce very different answers on the same file because of how they define income, how they stress affordability and what deposit they require for the enhanced multiple.

Treat professional criteria as one more reason to compare across the market rather than a shortcut that removes the need to. Deposit size, credit history and existing commitments still drive the outcome.

Because these policies sit in lender criteria rather than on rate tables, they are difficult to find yourself. Searching the MortgageMatch directory for an FCA-authorised broker who handles professional and medical cases is usually the fastest way to establish which multiples are genuinely available to you.