More than a quarter of mortgage intermediaries say over half of their clients receive regular bonus or commission that they would like to be considered by a lender to boost their affordability assessment.
This is according to a survey by Kensington among a group of 680 mortgage intermediaries. The research found 26 per cent of brokers said over half of their clients earned regular bonus or commission that they wanted to be considered in an affordability calculation.
Just 8 per cent of mortgage intermediaries said they saw fewer than one in ten clients who wanted bonus and commission income to be considered as part of their application.
Charles Morley, head of sales at Kensington, said: “Bonuses may have made headlines for the wrong reasons recently, but there is no getting around the fact that a huge number of workers in the UK are rewarded on performance, with regular target-related bonus or commission.
“Given that it is so integral to the workforce, it is unbelievable to think that some lenders are still reluctant to consider the full value of regular bonus or commission payments within their affordability calculations. At Kensington, however, we take an intelligent approach to lending, with experienced underwriters making pragmatic decisions based on the circumstances of real people, which is why we can consider up to 100 per cent of all regular bonus, commission or other declarable income earned.”
