Santander has revised its criteria for new self-employed homebuyers, which now allows them to borrow up to 90% loan to value against a property.

The high street lender adds that existing self-employed customers moving home will continue to be able to borrow up to 95% LTV, with affordability based on an average of two years’ income.

The move for new self-employed customers lifts the borrowing ratio for this group from 75% LTV.

Santander head of product proposition Graham Sellar says: “We are pleased to have increased our LTV to 90% for self-employed borrowers. We’ve made some changes that help us process applications more effectively, and enable us to open up the market for more people, providing an even better service to our brokers and customers.”

A recent report by revealed more than half of self-employed people believed their chances of buying or renovating a property (either for themselves or for investment purposes) could be out of reach this year simply because they expected to get turned down for a mortgage, according to specialist mortgage lender Together.

It added that the majority of survey respondents who believed their mortgage application could be refused said it was because they were self-employed (55%) or because they had an irregular income (35%). And yet, 84% would have needed to borrow money to make their property ambitions happen, which on the surface appears to be a stumbling block.

Together’s poll of 1,000 UK self-employed participants was conducted by OnePoll in December 2021.