Beverley Building Society is increasing the maximum LTV on mortgages for self-employed borrowers to 80%, applicable to those with one year’s accounts.

The previous maximum LTV available to self-employer borrowers was 75%.

Self-employed business owners account for around half of the building society’s customer base.

Simon Glass, head of new business lending at the Beverley, says the group is introducing this change to further target borrowers he says are “underserved”.

Glass says: “They’ve traditionally found it tough to secure mortgages, compared to people in standard, employed roles, and the Covid-19 pandemic proved another blow.

“Despite these challenges, we understand the important contribution small business owners make to the UK economy and we are keen to help them in any way we can, as we do other niche borrower groups – hence this change to our LTV criteria on our self-employed mortgages.”

The Beverley is also launching an interest-only two-year discounted mortgage with a rate of 1.89%.

With a completion fee of £1,495, the new mortgage is available to both purchase and remortgage applications.