The most common version of this question we hear, almost weekly, is some variant of: “I went limited company a year ago, my first set of accounts has just been signed off, can I actually get a mortgage now?” The honest answer is yes, more often than people think, but the lender list is narrower and the application has to be presented in the right way. What we have found over the last few years is that one-year-accounts cases get declined far more often for poor presentation than for the income itself.
This guide is what we have actually seen working for self-employed clients with twelve months of trading evidence. It covers which lenders engage, what they look at, what changes between sole trader and limited company director, and the deposit and rate reality you should plan for.
Directors with longer trading histories should see our full guide to mortgages for company directors.
Fox Davidson arranges self-employed mortgages across the UK from £100,000 upwards, including a healthy share of one-year-accounts cases each month. We work with the high street lenders who accept this profile alongside the specialist lenders who pick up the cases where the high street will not engage.
Can you actually get a mortgage with only one year of self-employed accounts?
Yes. Several mainstream lenders accept one year of self-employed accounts, and the specialist market goes deeper than people realise. What we have found is that the question is not really whether the lender exists, it is whether the borrower fits the criteria the willing lenders apply.
The lenders who accept one year of accounts split into two camps. The first is a small group of high-street and challenger lenders who treat one-year-accounts applicants as a slightly higher-friction version of a standard self-employed case: same affordability calculation, same products, same rates. The second is the specialist self-employed market, which uses different income proofing (accountant’s projections, contract evidence, future-income reasonableness) and prices marginally above mainstream rates in exchange for accepting the thinner trading evidence.
Often we find that a client comes to us assuming they need to wait another year before applying. In a meaningful percentage of those cases, the deal could go ahead now. The flip side is also true. Some clients with twelve months of accounts have a profile that genuinely needs another year of trading before lenders will engage on sensible terms, and the honest broker conversation is to say that.
Which UK lenders accept one year of self-employed accounts?
We track this lender by lender and publish what each one states in its own criteria, alongside the loan to value caps that come attached. The full list sits in our UK mortgage lender criteria comparison, which covers twelve lenders that will work with one year of accounts and the nine that will not.
The lender market for one-year-accounts mortgages has expanded over the last five years. We will not name specific lenders publicly because criteria change, but the structure of the market is consistent enough to describe in bands.
The mainstream high-street and challenger band includes a handful of lenders who treat one-year-accounts applications on standard products. These are typically the strongest pricing options for borrowers who fit. They tend to want the latest accounts to show net profit (or salary plus dividends for limited company directors) at a level that comfortably supports the loan, plus evidence the business has been trading for at least 12 months by the application date.
The specialist self-employed band is broader. These lenders price 0.3 to 0.7 percentage points above the mainstream high-street rate at 75 percent LTV but engage with a wider range of profiles. They are more willing to use an accountant’s projection of future income alongside the historical accounts. They are more comfortable with industries the mainstream sometimes flags as risky (construction, hospitality, certain consultancies).
The very specialist lenders sit at the edge of the market and are typically used for cases where the mainstream and standard specialist routes have already been ruled out. Pricing is materially higher and product flexibility is reduced. Most one-year-accounts cases we place do not need this lender band, but it exists and we use it when needed.
What lenders look at when assessing one year of self-employed accounts
The mainstream lenders use the SA302 (for sole traders) or the limited company accounts plus salary and dividend evidence (for company directors). The first thing they look at is the net profit or director income figure, and whether it is enough to support the loan on their standard affordability calculator. That number drives everything else.
What we have found is that the more important question, especially for one-year-accounts cases, is what they look at after the headline number. Industry stability matters. A consultancy in a sector with steady demand reads better than a project-by-project trade where income volatility is obvious. Continuity matters. A client who was previously employed in the same industry as their new business reads better than a career-switcher with no evidence of demand for the new service. Forward order book matters. Showing two or three confirmed contracts running into the next 12 months changes a one-year case into something the lender can underwrite as a continuing income stream.
Often we find that the difference between an accept and a decline is not the income number itself but the supporting documentation. An accountant’s letter confirming the trading history, projected income for the current tax year, and the basis for that projection, materially changes how the underwriter sees the case. Most clients do not know this until they speak to a broker, and most accountants do not produce this letter unless asked.
Sole trader vs limited company director with one year of accounts
The two profiles look similar on paper but lenders treat them differently. For sole traders, the SA302 is the income document of record. The relevant figure is the net profit declared on the tax return after allowable expenses but before personal tax. Some lenders will average two years if available; with only one year, the latest year is taken at face value.
For limited company directors, the position is more flexible and more nuanced. The two main income proofing routes are salary plus dividends (the traditional approach used by most mainstream lenders) and salary plus net profit retained in the company (used by a smaller group of specialist lenders, often called share of net profit lenders). The second route reads more income because retained profit is not yet drawn out as dividends. For a director who has only taken minimal dividends in their first trading year because they are reinvesting, the second route can be the difference between a sensible loan and no loan at all.
What we have found is that limited company directors usually have more options than they realise on a one-year basis, but only if the broker uses the right lender route. Most directors who have come to us after being declined elsewhere were assessed on salary plus dividends only, when their actual share of net profit was meaningfully higher. Switching the proofing route is sometimes the only thing that needed to change.
How much can you borrow on one year of self-employed accounts?
Income multiples on one-year-accounts cases follow standard UK lending logic. Most lenders work in the 4.5 to 4.75 times income range for clients earning under £60,000. For higher earners (above £75,000 typically), professional and high-earner schemes can push to 5 times, occasionally 5.5 times, with a small specialist bracket going to 6 times for clients with strong supporting evidence. These higher multiples are slightly harder to access on one-year accounts than on three-year accounts, but not impossible.
The income figure used is the relevant one for the proofing route. Sole trader: net profit on the SA302. Director on salary plus dividends: combined gross dividends and salary. Director on share of net profit: salary plus the directors’ share of company net profit before dividend distribution.
The maximum loan a borrower can achieve is the lower of the income multiple result and the LTV-driven maximum. On one-year accounts, the LTV ceiling is usually the binding constraint rather than the income multiple. Most mainstream high-street lenders cap one-year-accounts cases at 80 percent LTV. Specialist lenders go to 85 percent on the right profile, occasionally 90 percent. A handful of specialist lenders will look at 95 percent LTV cases on one-year accounts, but the criteria narrow significantly and the application has to be near-perfect.
Deposit and LTV reality on one-year-accounts cases
The most common mistake we see clients make is assuming the deposit requirement is the same as on a multi-year-accounts application. Often we find that someone who would qualify at 90 or 95 percent LTV with three years of accounts is told by the same lender that they need 15 to 20 percent deposit on one-year accounts. The borrower then assumes no lender will go higher, when in reality a different lender on the panel will.
The realistic LTV bands we work to on one-year-accounts cases are: mainstream high-street at 80 percent LTV, mainstream specialist at 85 percent, broader specialist at 85 to 90 percent on stronger profiles, and a small group of specialist lenders at 90 to 95 percent on near-perfect cases. We have placed deals at every one of these LTVs in the last 12 months, but each requires a different lender route.
What this means in practice for a client buying a £400,000 home: the deposit requirement spans £20,000 (95 percent LTV with the right specialist) up to £80,000 (80 percent with the mainstream high-street). The same client, same income, same accounts, can have a four-fold range in deposit requirement depending purely on which lender they approach.
Common reasons one-year-accounts applications come unstuck
Three patterns account for most of the declines we see clients arrive with. First, applying through a high-street branch or online journey rather than through a broker, ending up with the lender whose criteria does not fit, and being declined when a different lender on the same panel would have engaged. This is the most common reason a one-year-accounts case looks impossible when it is not.
Second, weak supporting documentation. The lender needs the SA302 or accounts, plus tax year overview, plus typically three months of bank statements, plus an accountant’s letter for the current trading year. Missing any of these on first submission slows the case and sometimes triggers a manual decline. Often we find the accountant has not produced the projection letter, the client has not got tax year overviews from HMRC, or the bank statements are missing the most recent month.
Third, the income figure itself does not stretch to the loan needed. This is the genuine “wait another year” case. A first year of trading where the net profit is half what the client expects to earn in a normal year cannot support a loan based on a normal year. The choice is to wait, take a smaller loan, find a lender that will use projections, or use a different proofing route (share of net profit instead of salary plus dividends, for example).
What to do before applying
One of the best things we did with a recent client was getting them to delay submission by three weeks while we organised the supporting pack properly. He had been declined twice already by direct applications. The third lender (chosen by us based on the profile) accepted the case at 85 percent LTV with the right pack. Same income, same property, same week. The application materials were the only thing that changed.
A clean one-year-accounts pack typically includes the latest signed accounts (or SA302 plus tax year overview for sole trader), an accountant’s letter confirming trading history and projected income for the current year, three months of personal bank statements, three months of business bank statements, the latest year’s HMRC tax year overview, evidence of self-employment registration, and proof of current contracts where applicable. Putting this together takes one to two weeks if the accountant is responsive, and longer if not.
The other thing worth doing before applying is a soft credit check via the broker. We can model the affordability against three or four lenders most likely to engage, before any hard footprint is left on the credit file. What we have found is that this saves clients from the situation where a lender’s hard inquiry has been logged, the case has been declined, and the next lender becomes harder to approach because of the fresh footprint.
Worked example: limited company director, one year of accounts
A representative case from the last 12 months, anonymised. Client formed his consultancy in March 2024, first set of accounts to March 2025 signed off August 2025. Salary £12,500, dividends £58,000 in the first trading year, net profit before dividends £85,000. He was looking for a £415,000 purchase with a £62,000 deposit (85 percent LTV) and was on his third declined application when he came to us.
The previous declines had used salary plus dividends as the proofing route, giving a usable income of £70,500. At 4.75 times income that capped his borrowing at around £335,000, well short of the £353,000 he needed. The lender had simply marked the case as unaffordable.
What we did was identify a specialist lender that uses share of net profit. On that basis his income reads as £12,500 salary plus the £85,000 net profit, totalling £97,500. The same 4.75 times multiple now produces a maximum loan of £463,000, comfortably above the £353,000 needed. The case was approved at 85 percent LTV at a rate 0.4 percentage points above the mainstream high-street equivalent, which on a £353,000 loan adds roughly £100 per month in interest. He completed within seven weeks of the soft application.
The £100 per month difference cost him about £6,000 over a 5-year fixed rate. The alternative was waiting another full year to build a second set of accounts and applying to mainstream lenders, by which point the property he wanted would have been long gone. The maths and the timing both worked.
Rates and pricing on one-year-accounts mortgages
Standard 5-year fixed rates at 75 to 80 percent LTV for clients who fit mainstream high-street one-year-accounts criteria currently price within 0.1 percentage points of equivalent multi-year-accounts products. The pricing penalty for being a one-year-accounts borrower at the strongest end of the market is small.
The specialist self-employed band prices 0.3 to 0.7 percentage points above mainstream high-street equivalent at the same LTV. Specialist 90 to 95 percent LTV products on one-year accounts price 0.6 to 1.2 percentage points above the cheapest mainstream 75 percent LTV product. Pricing in 2026 reflects the broader UK mortgage market: a Bank of England base rate of 3.75 percent (down from 4.5 percent during 2025) and 5-year swap rates that have softened over the last six months.
What we have found is that the rate difference on a one-year case is rarely the deciding factor. Borrowers worry about the rate when they should be worrying about whether the right lender will engage at all. Once the right lender is identified, the rate is what it is, and the difference between the cheapest and the most expensive lender on a viable one-year case is typically £80 to £150 per month on a £350,000 loan. That is real money but it is not the difference between buying the property and not buying it.
How we approach one-year-accounts cases
The standard process we run for a one-year-accounts client is: an initial 20-minute call to understand the trading profile, the target property, the deposit available, and the credit position; a soft modelling exercise against three or four likely lenders; a written summary of the realistic LTV bands and rates for each; a documentation request to the client and accountant; soft application to the chosen lender to get a verbal indication; hard application once that returns positive; through to offer.
Most one-year-accounts cases we place complete within six to eight weeks from initial call to legal completion. The time-consuming part is usually the documentation, not the lender process. Where the accountant is responsive and the client has access to all the personal documentation, completion can be quicker. Where the accountant is slow, the case stretches.
What we charge for arranging a self-employed mortgage is a single broker fee, typically capped at the lower of 1 percent of the loan or £995. We never charge for an initial call or for modelling out the lender options.
Frequently asked questions
Can I get a mortgage with only one year of self-employed accounts?
Yes, multiple UK lenders accept one year of self-employed accounts. The mainstream high-street market has a small number of lenders willing to engage on standard pricing. The specialist self-employed market goes broader and prices marginally above mainstream. Maximum LTV typically caps at 80 percent on the high street, 85 to 90 percent in the specialist market, and 95 percent in a small specialist band on near-perfect cases.
Which lenders accept one year of self-employed accounts?
We do not name specific lenders publicly because criteria change. The active market splits into mainstream high-street and challenger lenders who accept one-year accounts on standard products, mainstream specialist self-employed lenders who accept a wider range of profiles at slightly higher pricing, and very specialist lenders for difficult cases. We can identify the right lender for your specific profile within an initial call.
How much deposit do I need with one year of accounts?
Deposit requirements depend on which lender route fits your profile. Mainstream high-street lenders typically cap one-year-accounts cases at 80 percent LTV (20 percent deposit). Specialist lenders go to 85 to 90 percent (10 to 15 percent deposit) on stronger profiles. A small specialist band accepts 95 percent LTV (5 percent deposit) on near-perfect one-year cases. Clients with weaker credit or industry profiles typically need to plan for 15 to 25 percent deposit.
Sole trader or limited company director: which is easier on one year of accounts?
Both routes work but the income proofing differs. Sole traders are assessed on the SA302 net profit. Limited company directors are typically assessed on salary plus dividends, but a smaller group of specialist lenders use share of net profit, which often produces a higher usable income figure. Limited company directors with significant retained profit in their first trading year often have more options than they realise.
How much can I borrow with one year of self-employed accounts?
Income multiples on one-year-accounts cases follow standard UK lending logic: 4.5 to 4.75 times income for most cases, 5 times for higher earners with professional credentials, occasionally 5.5 to 6 times in specialist brackets. The income figure used depends on the proofing route. The maximum loan is the lower of the income multiple result and the LTV ceiling, which on one-year-accounts cases is usually the binding constraint.
Will I pay a higher rate with one year of accounts?
At the mainstream high-street end of the one-year-accounts market, the rate premium versus a multi-year-accounts case is typically less than 0.1 percentage points. In the specialist self-employed market, the premium is 0.3 to 0.7 percentage points. The difference on a typical loan size translates to £80 to £150 per month versus the cheapest possible alternative, which is usually less material than borrowers fear.
What documentation do lenders need?
The standard pack includes the latest signed accounts (or SA302 plus HMRC tax year overview for sole traders), an accountant’s letter confirming trading history and projected income for the current tax year, three months of personal bank statements, three months of business bank statements, evidence of self-employment registration, and proof of current contracts where applicable. The accountant’s letter is often the missing piece that turns a decline into an accept.
How long does the application take?
Most one-year-accounts cases we place complete within six to eight weeks from initial call to legal completion, in line with standard UK self-employed mortgage timelines. The variable factor is usually how quickly the accountant produces the supporting letter and projections.
Final thoughts
One year of self-employed accounts is enough to get a mortgage in 2026 for a meaningful share of UK borrowers. The lender market is broader than the high-street comparison sites suggest and the pricing penalty at the strongest end of the market is smaller than most clients expect. What we have found is that the difference between getting a sensible deal and being told to wait another year is almost always the lender route, not the underlying income.
If you have just signed off your first year of accounts and you are weighing up whether to apply now or wait, send us the basic profile in a 20-minute call and we will tell you honestly which route fits and what is realistic. Most of the work that decides the outcome happens before the application is submitted, not after.