Self-Employed Architect Buys in Greenwich

Marcus, 38, had been running his own architecture practice for four years. Business had grown steadily, with his SA302s showing net profit of £67,000 in year one, £71,000 in year two, and £89,000 in year three. He had found a £470,000 Victorian conversion in SE10 and had £114,000 available as a deposit, giving him a 24% deposit.

He approached two high street banks before coming to us. Both offered him £320,000, which would leave him £36,000 short of what he needed. Their method was to average all three years of income, which dragged his assessed figure down to around £75,700. The more recent, higher earnings were effectively being diluted by the earlier, lower years.

The core problem was that most mainstream lenders default to averaging the last two or three years of self-employed income. For Marcus, this approach punished him for having a growing business. His year three income of £89,000 was the most accurate reflection of his current earning capacity, but the high street lenders would not consider it in isolation.

A secondary concern was that his company structure had evolved during this period, which meant the accounts looked slightly different year on year. He also had one large project invoice that arrived late and skewed the timing of his year two income, which some underwriters flagged as a red flag rather than recognising it as normal project-based billing.

We identified a specialist lender on our panel that takes a more considered view of growing businesses. Rather than averaging all available years, this lender allows brokers to present a case for using the most recent year's income alone where there is a clear upward trend and a credible explanation for the growth.

We prepared a full case presentation alongside Marcus's SA302s, accountant's certificate, and a brief covering letter explaining the practice's growth trajectory and the nature of project-based architectural billing. The lender was satisfied that year three income of £89,000 was a reasonable basis for assessment and agreed to lend at 4.5x income.