Ways to apply

Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up your payments

Show the section Are you eligible?
Show the section How to apply

As a responsible lender, we’re careful when it comes to offering mortgages. Eligibility criteria are below – if you’re not sure, please give us a call.

All customers

To apply for a first direct mortgage, you and any joint applicant must:

be a permanent UK resident and UK tax payer
be able to provide evidence of your income and outgoings to show that you can afford the mortgage.

	Repayment	Offset
Minimum loan	£10,000	£30,000
Minimum salary	-	Sole applicants must have a minimum salary of £50,000, joint applicants must have a combined salary of £75,000, or one party with a minimum salary of £50,000.
Maximum term	40 years	25 years
Minimum term	2 years	2 years
Maximum loan to value (LTV)	95%	75% up to £1 million 65% over £1 million and up to £2 million 50% over £2 million

How we assess the application

In order to assess self-employed applications responsibly, we need to ensure we take into consideration any future government backed loan liabilities, such as Bounce Back Loans (BBLs) or Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).

Our underwriters will deduct any government backed loan liabilities from the latest year’s net profit figure to give us an adjusted net profit position, as these will be ongoing costs for the business.

We'll accept self-employed incomes which include government Self-Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) grant income.

Depending on your circumstances, we'll need to see the following documents:


Sole trader, General Partnerships or Limited Liability Partnership with fewer than 200 partners	your last 2 years’ worth of the following documents (the most recent year must be dated within the last 18 months): Tax Year Overviews, and, Tax Calculations, evidenced by: a print out from HMRC website, or, an SA302, or, the computation produced by your accountant that is submitted to HMRC. NOTE: Additional information (i.e. business bank statements, further HMRC documentation) may be required by the underwriter to support the application.
Limited Liability Partnership (LLPs) with 200 or more partners	A letter from the company finance director or accountant detailing your earnings over the past 2 years, dated within the last 3 months.
Limited company director with 25% or more shareholding	your last 2 years' finalised financial accounts (the most recent year must be dated within the last 18 months) NOTE: Additional information (i.e. business bank statements) may be required by the underwriter to support the application. If there are multiple Directors within the business, and the financial accounts don't confirm the distribution of salary to each director, we’ll need evidence from either of the following: the last 2 years’ P60s the last 2 years' tax calculations and corresponding tax year overviews (a print out from HMRC website, an SA302 or the computation produced by your accountant that is submitted to HMRC).
Limited company director with less than 25% shareholding	We'll consider you to be employed - please go to the 'Permanent employment' section.
Self employed customers trading less than 2 years	we'll require a minimum of 1 year's finalised financial accounts (limited companies) or 1 year's tax calculations and tax year overviews (sole trader or partnership) dated within the last 18 months your latest 3 months business bank statements. The latest date showing on the statement must be within 35 days of the application start date.

If you're in permanent employment we'll need to see evidence of your income. The table below summarises the documents we'll need, depending on how frequently you're paid:

Income Type	Basic income (including any permanent allowances)¹	Shift allowance¹	Variable income (bonus/overtime/commission)¹²
Weekly	Latest 4 payslips	Latest 6 payslips	Latest 6 payslips
Fortnightly	Latest 2 payslips	Latest 6 payslips	Latest 6 payslips
Four Weekly	Latest payslip	Latest 3 payslips	Latest 3 payslips
Monthly	Latest payslip	Latest 3 payslips	Latest 3 payslips
Quarterly	N/A	N/A	Latest 4 equivalent payslips or award letters showing payment. The payslips or award letters must include a payment that has been paid within the last 3 months.
Half Yearly	N/A	N/A	Latest 4 equivalent payslips or award letters showing payment. The payslips or award letters must include a payment that has been paid within the last 6 months.
Annually	N/A	N/A	Latest 2 equivalent payslips or award letters showing payment. The payslips or award letters must include a payment that has been paid within the last 12 months.

Where an award letter is being used as evidence of income, it must clearly state the exact amount that will be paid within 3 months of the date on the award letter.

General property criteria

All properties must be in the UK and be of standard construction with a working kitchen and bathroom.

At the moment, we don’t lend on Buy to Let properties or where the property has been bought under a right to buy or shared ownership scheme. The property must be used as your main residence and not for business purposes.

For leasehold properties, we’ll only lend if there is at least 30 years left on the lease at the end of the proposed mortgage term.

We count a property as being new build if it's less than two years old or has never been occupied in its current format. If you're borrowing against a new build property:

we may lend up to a maximum of 85% Loan to Value (LTV)
if you have an LTV greater than 75% you’ll need to have a minimum deposit of £25,000.

Your property can’t currently be up for sale.

If the property has more than 15 acres:

you’ll need to confirm there are no agricultural restrictions attached to the property and that it’s only used for personal use
we’ll only be able to lend you up to 75% of the purchase price or valuation, whichever is the lowest.

we may lend up to a maximum of 90% Loan to Value (LTV)
we may not offer a mortgage on a flat if it's in the same building as a commercial property
if the building containing the flat has more than 4 floors, it must have a working lift
we may lend on flats within ex-local authority blocks with 6 or fewer floors (subject to LTV restrictions)
we generally can't offer lending on freehold flats in England and Wales. However, there may be some circumstances in which we can lend – please call us for further details. Freehold flats in Scotland with outright ownership are acceptable
we will consider lending on flats that have failed their EWS1 assessments but have funding plans in place for remediation where there is evidence that the buildings will be self-remediated by developers or covered by a recognised government scheme and evidenced by Leaseholder Deed of Certificate.

When applying for your Offset Mortgage please enter the monthly amount you'll need to pay towards your repayment strategy. For example the monthly amount you intend to save for ad hoc capital, to your Stocks and Shares ISA, investments, or the monthly payment amount to an endowment policy.

Note: Repayment strategies won't be acceptable if they're jointly held with other parties who aren't also party to the mortgage application. first direct can't recommend or provide advice in relation to the suitability or selection of any repayment strategy.

Here are details of the types of repayment strategies we accept.

Repayment Strategy	Evidence Required
Sale of another property - this shouldn't be your primary residence, a commercial property or the property this mortgage is for. Repayment Strategy based on 75% of the current property value, less any outstanding secured borrowing.	mortgage statement or Offer Document dated within the last 35 days, if applicable. An internet print/statement is acceptable solicitor's letter confirming ownership of the second property or copy of the Register of Title from the Land Registry, Registers of Scotland etc. a professional valuation by an RICS Surveyor or suitable Automated Valuation dated within the last 12 months.
Endowment policy Repayment Strategy based on the lowest projection provided in the annual endowment policy statement.	Endowment policy statement including endowment projection dated within the last 12 months.
UK sterling cash savings (Savings, Investments, Cash ISA, Premium Bonds, Sharesave). Repayment Strategy based on 100% of existing cash savings held in a UK savings/bank account, Cash ISA or Premium Bonds.	Latest account statement dated within the last 35 days to evidence the latest value and evidence of monthly contributions. An internet print/statement is acceptable.
UK based Stocks and Shares ISA Repayment Strategy based on 50% of the value shown on the latest account statement.	Latest Stocks and Shares ISA account statement dated within the last 35 days to evidence the latest value and evidence of regular and on going contributions. An internet print/statement is acceptable.
Other UK based investments - Unit Trust, OEIC, Investment Bonds, Shares, Gilts. Repayment Strategy based on 50% of the value shown on the latest account statement.	Latest account statement or certificate dated within the last 35 days to evidence the latest value and evidence of regular and on going contributions. An internet print/statement is acceptable.
Ad hoc/Regular repayment of capital The application of earnings (guaranteed or variable) to reduce the mortgage balance or to build savings over the mortgage term. We'll accept 25% of the annual average of any variable income (e.g. work bonuses) and 100% of any guaranteed income.	Variable Income will only be acceptable if paid weekly, fortnightly, four weekly or monthly. Documentary evidence of the source and regularity of income will be required.

Show the section How to apply

How to apply

Telephone

Our qualified Mortgage Advisors can help you find the right mortgage from our range, absolutely free and with no obligation over the phone.

To start an application, call us and get an Agreement in Principle. You’ll need details of your income and outgoings to hand.

We’ll let you know what documents you need to send us to support your application. After we’ve received these we’ll ring you to arrange a telephone appointment with one of our Mortgage Advisers.

New to first direct

0800 48 24 48

Mon to Sat 8am - 8pm and Sun 9am - 8pm

Existing 1st Account holders:

03 456 100 103

Mon to Sat 8am - 8pm and Sun 9am - 8pm

Online

Applying online with first direct is simple and convenient if you're happy to apply without mortgage advice. You need to be aware that if you apply online first direct isn't required to assess the suitability of the mortgage that you choose, and you won’t receive the same protection offered by the Financial Conduct Authority’s rules as customers who use the advised telephone service.

Apply online

What we'll need from you

During your mortgage appointment we’ll ask you for details on all the money you earn and on your spending, so that we can accurately assess the right mortgage arrangements for you. This appointment usually takes up to two hours and you’ll need to be somewhere you can openly share the following types of personal information over the phone:

Income
Credit, store or charge card balances
Loans (both sole and joint applicants)
Car Leases
Pensions
School Fees
Childcare
Maintenance/Alimony

Amend an existing online application

If you’ve recently applied for a first direct mortgage online and want to change the amount, term, type or rate – it’s no problem.

Go to our ‘Find the mortgage for you’ tool and ‘Amending an existing application’ will be selected for you in the ‘I am..’ field.

Enter your new details into the remaining fields and choose your mortgage from the results by selecting ‘Full details’. Then follow the on-screen instructions. By doing this you skip some of the pages that you already completed during your original application.

Think carefully before securing other debts against your home. Your home may be repossessed if you don't keep up repayments on your mortgage.