11/08/2026
Your bank says you can borrow £90k… so that’s all you can borrow, right? 👀
Not necessarily.
I recently had a client who had been with their bank for years. Their business banking was with them, and they already had their mortgage with them.
When they asked their bank how much they could borrow, they were told £90,000.
They came to me for a second opinion.
I looked at their circumstances and, more importantly, found lenders who assessed their income differently.
Here’s the bit that made the difference 👇
As a company director, you might take a relatively small salary and leave a lot of the business profit in the company rather than taking it all as dividends.
For example:
Company net profit: £100,000
Salary: £12,000
Dividends taken: £20,000
Some lenders may primarily focus on the salary + dividends actually taken.
But other lenders may be able to consider the salary + company net profit when assessing affordability, depending on their criteria and your circumstances.
That can make a BIG difference to how much you could potentially borrow.
In my client’s case:
Their bank: £90,000
With the right lender: £180,000
🔥 That’s a £90,000 difference.
And this is exactly why I tell people:
Always get a second opinion.
Your bank might know your business.
But they don’t have access to every lender’s criteria.
Just because one lender says “£90k is your maximum” doesn’t mean another lender will say the same.
If you’re a company director, business owner or self-employed and you’re thinking about moving home, remortgaging or borrowing more…
Don’t assume the first figure you get is the final answer.
Every lender has different criteria and affordability is assessed on an individual basis. The example above is for illustration purposes only.
YOUR HOME MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON YOUR MORTGAGE.
