Pepper Money has expanded its mortgage criteria by allowing UK visa holders to use their income on applications up to 75% loan-to-value (LTV).
This change gives visa holders with at least one applicant holding permanent right to reside access to the lender’s full range of residential products for both purchase and remortgage.
Applicants must show a minimum two-year UK employment history, a UK address history for three years, and must currently live in the UK.
The lender will accept applications from people holding Tier 1 entrepreneur visa, Tier 2 skilled worker visa (now known as skilled worker visa), senior or specialist worker visa, health and care worker visa, and family visa.
Additionally, applicants will need to provide evidence of their visa and pass a full affordability assessment.
Paul Adams, sales director at Pepper Money, said: “As the UK continues to attract international talent across sectors like tech, healthcare and academia, it’s vital that our financial system evolves to support those contributing to the economy.
“By extending our product criteria to accept UK visa holders, we’re helping skilled individuals put down roots and participate further in UK life.
“At Pepper Money, we take an inclusive approach to lending, and these changes to our criteria attest to this.”
Adams added: “Enhancing our proposition to include income from UK visa holders in our affordability assessments ensures that hard-working individuals on eligible visas, who contribute to the UK economy and have established roots, aren’t excluded from homeownership.
“This isn’t just about expanding access, it’s about creating a fairer, more inclusive mortgage market.
“We’re working closely with brokers to provide more options for their just-off-high-street customers, deliver market-leading service, competitive rates, and certainty of price for a significant portion of the market who are in a good position to accept this finance, but would otherwise have been overlooked.”
